


Almost Blue

by Internet_Bratt



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, hange and erwin are such good homies omg, ill add more tags as the story goes on, levi in suits CONSTANTLY, levi is also like... weirdly possesive ngl, levi is literally so rude at first like calm down, very very slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26722714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Internet_Bratt/pseuds/Internet_Bratt
Summary: A Modern AU, Where Levi is a world famous concert pianist, and you run a fine art gallery inside an Art Center Levi performs at frequently.
Relationships: Hitch Dreyse/Marlo Sand | Marlowe Freudenberg, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)/Reader, Levi/Reader
Comments: 19
Kudos: 123





	1. Etude Op.8 No.12

**Author's Note:**

> I'd just like to preface this by saying there's lots of mentions of music throughout this story, so I'll provide links at the beginning of each chapter to the songs that are included in the chapter (There will generally only be one per chapter). It's up to you if you'd like to listen to it as you read the description of Levi's performances, I tend to listen to music while reading to better immerse myself into the story, so I wanted to provide that option as well. I'll make it very evident when Levi is playing the song so you know when to start it (If it was possible for me to imbed links directly into the text I'd do that, but I don't think it's an option unfortunately) 
> 
> Also, I totally suggest getting a chrome/browser extension that replaces words for you! I have one on my computer and it makes reading these sorts of stories so much more fun because your name is directly incorporated into the story. I'll be using y/n to refer to your first name, and l/n to be referring to your last name. Once again, totally optional but I think it makes the stories so much better to read when the characters are addressing you by your actual name instead of yn.

_Link to Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz3TqZtAkeQ_

The art gallery always seemed to run slower on rainy days. Especially in these awkward transitional periods between exhibits. You’d just finished the Kusama exhibit which had lasted for the past month, and you were looking forward to the major shift in tone that the upcoming Rembrandt exhibit was going to have in contrast to Kusama. Though transitioning from feminist pop art to baroque art was a bit of an odd choice, you always enjoyed having dramatic changes in the gallery. The Rembrandt exhibit was arriving today, and you were the only one from your gallery allowed to oversee it, the collection had its own security and cleaning personnel that looked after everything. You definitely weren’t going to complain about having someone else clean and polish the paintings instead of you. Your only task was to escort the workers from the police escorted moving trucks to a safe, where they were to sit until the night before the exhibition opened.

The shipment was supposed to arrive at about 10pm at night, it was so heavily guarded with police escorts and security guards that they insisted on doing it at night when there were less people around to ensure the safety of the civilians, and also so they could temporarily close the side streets to avoid any cars or oncoming traffic. It was a tedious process, but one you’d gotten used to over the years. Running a fine art gallery attached to one of the most prestigious concert halls in Germany definitely came with it’s tiresome ups and downs.

You were about to head out for a very late dinner, when you felt your phone vibrating in your pocket, You picked it up to see your friend Hitch, who ran a little café on the second floor of the building, calling you.

“Hello?”

“Hey, y/n! So.. uh..How’s the gallery going?” she said, it was clear she was trying to make some small talk before getting to why she called out of the blue.

“Oh, it’s been pretty good, things are definitely getting busier now that the Rembrandt exhibit is getting closer. Anyways, what do you need?”

“Pfft, I can’t just call to ask how you’re doing?” she said, clearly trying to hide the fact that she was giggling.

“Come on, I know you better than that. Why’d you call?”

“Okay, so I mighttttt have a little favour to ask you,”

“Which is?”

“It’s nothing crazy, I just need you to run down this drink I made to the little backstage-waiting room-area thing in Concert Hall A. You know what I’m talking about, right? There’s just too many people in line right now for me to send one of my staff members, and you’re the only other person here I’m close with.”

“You’re lucky I was just about to go for dinner. I’m using my precious, precious meal time for you Hitch.”

“Thank you! Your coffee tomorrow morning is on me as a thanks, order whatever you want.”

“I’ll be down in a few minutes, okay?”

“Sounds good, bye!” You hung up the phone and slid it back into your pocket, promptly heading downstairs to grab the drink.

Hitch waved at you, and pointed at the cup sitting on the counter before running back to make more drinks. She was right, her café seemed absolutely swamps with customers to the point she didn’t even have time to say hi to you. You grabbed the cup, which was notably hotter than her drinks normally were, and proceeded to head to Concert Hall A. You figured it was for either whoever was performing, or one of the staff members helping out backstage. 

The closer you got to the hall, the more you could hear the music coming from inside. The room was relatively sound proof, but you could still hear the music faintly in the background. You couldn’t make out exactly who it was... Liszt possibly? Beethoven? It wasn’t quite distinctive enough, but you could make out that whoever it was was a solo performer, and was a pianist at that. The intensity coming from within the concert hall was almost alarming, now that you were right beside the concert hall, it was decently easy to listen to, and you couldn’t begin to imagine how intense it must be for the audience. 

You walked into the backroom of the hall that was strictly staff only, meant for the performer and those closest to them. The room was set up much like a living room, with a few couches, a coffee table, and a small mini fridge filled with water for the performers. There was a tall, well built man sitting in one of the chairs, looking like he was going over documents on a laptop. He had bright blond hair that was very well kept and styled, and incredibly sharp facial features as well. He noticed you walking in, and his eyes instantly darted to the cup. Quickly putting two and two together, he set down his computer and stood up - he was much taller than you’d originally thought - and walked over to greet you. He offered his hand out to take the cup from you, and set it down on the table, popping off the disposable lid to let it cool. He pulled a tea bag that’d been sitting in the cup out, and set it down on the lid. 

“Thank you very much for leaving your work just to bring this, it’s very much appreciated.” He said, sitting back down in the seat.

“Oh, I’m not from the café, so it wasn’t a problem at all to run this down.”

“Oh, my apologies! I just assumed you were the woman I’d made the call to early about the tea. I take it you work here though, considering this is the staff only part of the building?”

“Yes, I’m the head curator for the art gallery upstairs.”

“Aaah, I see.” He gestured over to the couch across from him. “If you aren’t busy, you’re more than welcome to take a seat. This piece is just about to finish up, and I suspect there’ll be an encore. Though if you have work to get back to, I completely understand,” He had a very kind look on his face, you knew everything he was saying he meant very genuinely.

“I’m on my dinner break at the moment, so I’m not busy at all. Thank you for-” Your phrase got cut off with the sound of the audience clapping, the performance finally coming to an end. Suddenly the doors flew open, and you were greeted with the man who’d just finished performing. He was rather short, but still incredibly well built. It was impressive enough that you could tell how muscular he was through the suit he was wearing. He had black hair that styled with an undercut, but it looked a bit messy from how wet his hair was. He had sharp grey eyes that were incredibly cold. There were beads of sweat dripping down his face, which explained why his hair looked so damp. He quickly scanned the room before noting the cup of tea sitting on the counter. He didn’t address you, or the man sitting across from you, he just quickly walked over, grabbed the cup and took a sip. He set it back down and proceeded to quickly walk over to the bathroom. Everything about his movements were frantic, but with a very clear sense of organization to them, like these quick paced movements of his were a routine. The door was left slightly open, and you could hear water running from the tap. When he walked back out, he was patting off his face with a towel, significantly calmer than before.

“Well, get back out there Levi,” the man across from you said, a slight smirk on his face.

“Shut up Erwin.” He said, chucking the towel at Erwin who reached up to catch it before it could hit him in the face. If he hadn’t reacted as fast as he did, it definitely would’ve socked him in the face. Levi walked back out, and you could hear clapping coming from the audience again, everyone eager for the encore.

The audience simmered down, and there was a moment of silence before Levi started playing. You glanced up at Erwin, who had very unique expression on his face, as if to say ‘you’re not ready for what you’re about to hear’

He started playing, and the moment he struck the first key, you felt your body go stiff for a split second, his playing caught you off guard. You hadn’t really focused on his playing when you first walked in, but now that you were genuinely concentrating on it, you had to admit it was impressive. You instantly recognized the piece, Scriabin’s Etude Op.8 No.12, one of his most famous pieces. Though for a man who seemed so angry not even a minute ago, there was a lingering sadness to the notes. It started off fairly soft, almost delicate despite how intense the piece is meant to be played. Though that sadness quickly dissipated into what can only be described as pure rage. He seemed to play the bass notes incredibly loud, you could only imagine how much force he was applying to the keys. You could tell that he was angry. You’d be an idiot not to hear it in his music, the way he played. The emotions coming from that piano filled the room, you could practically feel it. By the time he was finished, you realized you’d been holding your breath, wary for how he was going to play every note. The only way you could describe his playing was pure, unadulterated power.

You felt your phone vibrate in your pocket, and you pulled it out to see you received a text.

_Will be arriving earlier than expected. Please be on standby._

“Thank you for allowing me to stay and listen, that was lovely. Erwin, was it?” You asked. You rose from the couch quickly, not wanting to accidentally be late.

“Yes, I’m Erwin, Erwin Smith. I’m Levi’s Manager.” He stood up, and extended his hand to you in an invitation to shake it. You grabbed his hand, his grip alarmingly firm. If he shook your hand any harder, you were worried it might end up breaking.

“I’m y/n l/n. It was lovely to meet you Erwin. I’d love to stay and thank the pianist, Levi I heard you call him? But I just had something come up and need to get going immediately.” Erwin’s eyes widened, noting the urgency in your voice.

“Please, please, I wouldn’t want to hold you any longer. I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for bringing the tea!” He waved goodbye as you walked out, and quickly hurried back up to the gallery.

...  
The moving crew was far more efficient than you’d thought they’d be, it took them just under half an hour to move all the artwork into a safe in the basement. They informed you they’d be back to help install the art as well saturday evening, and you thanked them and sent them on their way. You looked down at your watch to see it was only 9:30, so you headed back upstairs to grab your belongings from your office and head home.

As you walked into the gallery, you noticed a man standing, observing one of the paintings. He was wearing all black, and for a split second you were worried you might have to call security, but as you came closer it seemed as if he wasn’t harmful at all. He was wearing a long, black overcoat that looked like it’d been just freshly dry cleaned, and black pleated pants along with oxford dress shoes that were so shiny, you could probably see your reflection in them.

“I’m sorry sir, we closed an hour ago. I’m going to need for you to leave.” You said softly as you approached, trying not to startle him.

“Ah, did you? I was on my way home when this painting caught my eye.” He said, in a calm voice. He didn’t turn to face you though, his eyes were still glued to the painting in front of him. Even though his words sounded like an apology at first, it was clear he really had no intentions of leaving, and was more just offering an excuse for being there.

You walked over to stand beside him, and when you could finally see his face, you realized you’d already met him. He was the performer from earlier. 

He still didn’t acknowledge your presence, and continued to ponder the painting.

“Are you a fan or Goya, Mr...” You trailed off, hoping he’d tell you his last name. You knew his name was Levi, but it’d be so beyond unprofessional to address him as such, especially considering he hadn’t actually introduced himself, you only knew his name by association.

“Ackerman.” He said. It was blunt, but still had a strange softness to it. It was nothing like the version of him you’d first seen. The callousness in his voice was gone.

Now the pieces were coming together. Levi Ackerman. You were chewing yourself out for not putting it together sooner. Perhaps one of the most famous concert pianists at the moment, he is constantly credited with being one of the most successful young pianists in history. When you think of a classical musician, you generally picture some grey-haired old man who bickers about how music isn’t the same anymore, and is grumpy constantly. While he may fill out the last category, Levi was remarkably handsome and youthful looking. Nothing about his appearance screamed ‘world famous classical musician’ at all.

“...Mr. Ackerman?” you finished your question.

“Yes, I’m quite fond of Goya.” He finally glanced over at you, and when you made eye contact, you could tell he recognized you from earlier, which you thought was somewhat impressive considering he seemed to only be focused on the cup of tea you’d brought him and nothing else. He must be more aware of his surroundings than you’d assumed.

He slipped his hands out of his pockets, and held them behind his back instead, adjusting his posture. 

“What did you think?” He asked, still beyond blunt.

“What did I think of what, Mr. Ackerman?” You weren’t entirely sure what he was getting at, and you watched him roll his eyes slightly, clearly annoyed you weren’t able to follow him.

“The performance. I know you must’ve heard at least part of the encore after bringing me that cup of tea.” he was now staring right at you, waiting for your response. The warm, and calm gaze he’d been looking at the painting with was no longer there, and could feel the coldness in his eyes that you’d felt earlier when you first met him.

“You seemed upset over something.”

“Huh?” Clearly not the answer he was expecting. You crossed your arms and looked at him for a second, taking in the confused look on his face.

“You seem upset over something. It was an incredible performance, very powerful and moving, yet I’d be a fool not to pick up on the emotion that was coming from your playing. At first, I thought you were angry. But the more I think about it, the more that anger seemed to be filled with a sadness of sorts.” The words left your mouth before you could really process what you were saying. Analyzing art for you was second nature that you didn't give your words much thought, 'till you realized you'd just given a rather harsh critique to a man who _just_ performed.

Levi scoffed a bit, but for a split second you could’ve sworn you saw him smirk a bit over your comment.

“So do you think I’m a sullen person then”

You pondered over his question, trying to think of how to best approach it. You knew you were already treading on this ice with how blunt you'd been, and you didn't want to make the situation any worse. 

“Not necessarily. Art is about telling stories, so my answer to that would depend on if you were trying to tell a fictional story to the audience, or trying to give them some sort of auto-biography.”

“I see.” He crossed his arms, and turned back to look at the painting. He was impossible to read, so you had no idea if you’d offended him or not.

“My apologies if I crossed a line, Mr. Ackerman. My job is to interpret and sell art, and music is a form of art. Don’t take what I said personally.”

“I didn’t take it personally.”

There was a brief moment of silence, between the two of you, as you both continued to observe the painting. You had no idea why he was so fixated on it, to the point he detoured from going home just to see it.

“And you, Mr Ackerman? What interests you so much about this painting here?”

“I’m not sure. There’s nothing pleasant about this painting at all, yet I can’t help but stare at it.”

He was completely right. Goya’s painting _The Third of May 1808_ was a rather disturbing painting. The looks of fear on peoples faces, the pools of blood. There was nothing pleasant about it, yet you couldn’t help but stare at it. 

“I see.” You said, copying what he said earlier. He glanced over at you, clearly picking up the fact that you were poking fun at him.

“I’m just about to head home Mr. Ackerman, you’re welcome to stay and have a look around, but I’ll have to lock up after you, so you have maybe 5 minutes?” You offered him. Normally you’d just kick people out, no questions asked, but seeing the shift in his composure intrigued you.

“Thank you, but I should be heading off now as well. Thanks for the tea earlier, it was good.” He said, before turning and heading for the door.

_So that’s the famous Levi Ackerman huh?_

You went up to your office to grab your things before heading home, eager to leave considering you finished early. 

You pulled out your phone, curious to check something.

 _Home..Events..Concerts..Levi Ackerman.._ You searched through the Art Center’s webpage, looking for Levi’s concert program.

**Levi Ackerman Plays Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Liszt.  
Available Shows: Thursday, March 11th 7pm. Friday, March 12th 7pm. Saturday, March13th 2pm, 7pm**

_So he’s here for two more days then, you thought._

###### Notes

Thank you very much for reading the first chapter of this! It's my first time actually publishing anything so I'm a bit nervous, but also excited share this story with you :)


	2. Moment Musicaux No.4

_Link to Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLDse5R8dQ_

You woke up already in a slightly bad mood, knowing today was going to be exceptionally busy for you. You had to brief all the security guards on the paintings and organize their post rotations, you had to take down the Kusama exhibit first thing in the morning, repaint the rooms for the Rembrandt exhibit, then you had a meeting with a smaller artist who was looking to get his art put up in one of the smaller gallery rooms. Not to mention having to stay incredibly late at work in order to set up the Rembrandt exhibit as well. The day before art exhibits was always the most stressful, but that was part of the fun of your job. If anyone can work well under pressure, it’s you.

The gallery was closed for the morning in order to take down the Kusama exhibit, so you didn’t need to arrive to work until 10am, which was the one good thing that was going to come out of today. Once you arrived, you remembered how Hitch had offered to purchase a coffee for you as a thanks for the favour, so you took a quick detour to the café she ran. She wasn’t working this morning, but luckily one of the employees she was close with, Marlo, was working, so you just needed to explain to him that Hitch was paying for the drink. This happened more than you’d expect, so Marlo was pretty used to it at this point. There were a few people in line before you, which wasn’t too much of a concern. 

“A medium rooibos chai, please,” the man in front of you muttered, with a rather harsh tone to his voice. You glanced up to see Marlo looking mildly intimidated, which was a bit funny considering how much taller Marlo was compared to the guy standing in front of him.

The man walked off to wait for his drink, and it wasn’t until you caught a glimpse of his side profile you realized it was Levi Ackerman.

_Glad to know he treats everyone the way he treats everyone the way he treats his manager._

You walked up afterwards, and Marlo instantly relaxed when he saw you.

“Hey Marlo, can I get a large iced latte with an extra shot of espresso in it?”

“Day before the exhibit?”

“Is it that obvious?” Marlo gave you an understanding smile, and turned to punch in your order. “By the way, it’s on Hitch,” you chimed in.

“Alright, are you getting any breakfast?”

“No, I’m good Marlo.”

“You have had breakfast though, right?”

“Of course!” you lied. Thank god Marlo was gullible sometimes.

“Alright y/n, you’re good to go. It should only be a minute or two.”

You walked over to where the counter was, and luckily Levi seemed to have left already. You figured if you had to talk to someone who seemed to be in a grumpy mood, his grumpy mood would only add to your stressful day. You weren’t really sure why you kept running into him, but you quickly prayed that’d be the last you saw of him today before running up to your gallery to get working on dismantling the Kusama exhibit.

…

Your afternoon meeting went quite well. The artist, Jean, was quite friendly and very eager to work with you. You noted that he had multiple drawings of this young boy covered in freckles, and his art had this very bittersweet look to it. The meeting with Jean was definitely a nice change in pace from all the work you’d been doing so far today, but now the gallery was open again and you could relax until later this evening, when you had to install the Rembrandt exhibit.

You decided to do a lap of the gallery before heading out to buy lunch, looking to see if there were any collectors you recognized you could chat with, and hopefully convince them to buy something. You were looking around when you recognized one of the people looking at the paintings - Levi’s manager from yesterday evening, Erwin. 

“Good afternoon Mr. Smith,” you said as you approached him. He turned around, and it took him awhile to process who you were, but you could see the moment he recognized you and he proceeded to give you a very forgiving smile.

“Good afternoon. I’m truly sorry, you seem to be much better with names than I am, I’ve completely forgotten your name. I do remember you though, I swear.” You could practically hear how apologetic he sounded, worried he might upset you.

“It’s quite alright Mr. Smith, having a knack for remembering names is part of my job,” you tried to reassure him. “I’m y/n l/n”

“Right, Mrs l/n. It’s a lovely art gallery you manage, I must say,” He said, noticeably trying to change the subject from his memory to something else.

“Why thank you Mr. Smith, that’s very kind of you. Is there anything you’re particularly interested in?” Erwin scanned over the room, looking at all the different pieces of art.

“I’m not the most educated when it comes to classical art, unfortunately. To be quite honest I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to be focusing on when looking at art. Though I wanted to stop by after you mentioned that you were in charge of the gallery, so here I am.” 

“Well, I’m truly flattered, Mr. Smith. We’re switching out exhibitions right now, so there’s not quite as much artwork in the gallery than there normally is, but I’m glad to know you still like it.”

Erwin smiled at you, and took a long breath in, and held it momentarily as if he was hesitant to say something.

“This might be a bit out there, but I actually came here as well to see if you’d be interested in attending Levi’s performance this evening? Free, of course, as a thanks for yesterday, of course.” 

“Oh..” You were a bit taken aback by the offer. A free concert ticket in exchange for a singular cup of tea felt a bit wrong. “Well, that’s a lovely gesture, but, it was literally a cup of tea Mr. Smith, not some extraordinary favour or anything.”

“I.. Well, yes, but see.. The drink was just very important.. To Levi’s routine, and I just wanted to.. Show my gratitude..and..” for someone who seemed to exude charisma and confidence, watching him stumble over his words was a quite an odd sight. You could tell lying wasn’t something he was particularly good at, or at least felt bad doing.

While you wanted to know if there was a different reason he was asking you to the show, you figured it was better to just leave it be for now.

“I truly appreciate the offer Mr. Smith. Unfortunately you’ve caught me on perhaps one of my busiest days, so I doubt I’ll have any time to pop down this evening to see Mr. Ackerman’s performance.”

“Ahh, I see,” the disappointed look that was momentarily on Erwin’s face was enough to make you want to take back the statement and agree to go, just so that he’d stop looking so sad. “Well, if the opportunity arises, please just call me in advance and I’ll be sure to arrange something.” He pulled out a business card and handed it to you, with his name, email and phone number on it in a dark green serif font. “Even if it’s a minute before the show, it’s not a problem at all for me to sneak you in somehow. Have a lovely rest of your day, Mrs. l/n, and I wish you luck with whatever it is you have to get done today,” he said with another reassuring smile, before giving you a slight wave and walking out of the gallery.

…

You had been overseeing the cleaning and restoring of the paintings, and the workers were just about done. While it was somewhat nice to have to hire professionals, it was still a bit boring standing by and watching people work. You’d lost track of time now, but figured it was well into the evening. You pulled out your phone to check the time, and it was 5 after 7.

_Guess Levi’s show started already. Not like I could’ve gone anyways._

You headed to another room to check on everyone, and noticed a painting that had not been mounted to the wall. One of your employees noticed it as well and came over to give you a hand putting it up.

“Thanks for the hand, Carla.”

“Not a problem y/n! The faster we get this done, the faster we can go home. We’re making pretty good time today as well, don’t you think?” she asked.

“I have to say, I’m pretty impressed myself. Here I was thinking I’d be stuck here ‘till 1am. Guess I’m just not used to having such an incredible team of staff,” you said with a slight smirk, dishing out the compliment to her.

“You need to stop doing everything yourself, boss. When was the last time you took a break today even?”

“Uhh..” you tried to think back, but you’d been pretty much working all day. You got side tract after Erwin left, and never actually got the chance to go out and grab lunch. “Before I came into work this morning?”

“Jeez boss, would it kill you to take your scheduled breaks? We’re a team here, remember?” She proceeded to walk over to you and grab you by the shoulders, spinning you around and pushing you towards the door.

“Take an hour off, me and Dina will look after everything. Grab a coffee and read a book or something, I don’t care. You’re gonna overwork yourself to death!” She said, giving you a final shove out the door.

You turned around to see her standing proudly with her arms crossed, looking very confident with herself. You couldn’t help but chuckle a bit over how eager she was to give you a break.

“If you damage any of those paintings, you’re paying for them yourself you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine! I’ve been doing this for years now too. Just get on with it, you’re wasting your half an hour.” She gave you a final wave before walking off to help Dina with the other paintings.

You pulled out your phone to triple check the time again. 7:10pm.

You gave it some thought for a while, and decided that you really had nothing to lose if he said no. You pulled out the business card Erwin gave you earlier and texted the number, figuring it was better not to risk calling during a performance.

> _y/n: Hello, this is y/n l/n, you gave me this business card earlier today. I just managed to get a quick break, and was wondering if it was possible to attend Levi’s performance? I know this is worse than last minute, but I figured it was worth a shot._

Not even a minute later, Erwin had responded.

> _Erwin: That’s wonderful y/n, it’s not a problem at all. I’m happy to have you attend. If you’d like, just come back down to the backstage lounge where we were yesterday, the venue is sold out so it’s unlikely I’d be able to get you an actual seat in the audience now._
> 
> _y/n: Thank you so much Erwin, I look forward to hearing Levi’s performance. I hope my late message didn’t interrupt anything important._
> 
> __
> 
> _Erwin: Not at all, I was just going over some paper work with Levi’s personal sound engineer on his next album, nothing too important. I suppose you’ll meet them as well in a few minutes as well. I’ll see you soon :)_

You promptly headed down stairs, and once again the closer you got to the performance hall the more you could hear Levi’s music. This time, the song he was playing was very slow and somber, which seemed to be a big change in the piece he performed yesterday. 

You finally reached the lounge, where Erwin was sitting in the same spot as yesterday, only today there was someone else with him. They had long brown hair pulled up into a ponytail with lots of hair framing their face, and they were wearing a pair of glasses with oval frames. They glanced up in your direction, and their eyes instantly lit up when you made eye contact.

“Aah, so this is-” they turned to look at Erwin, then back at you rather excitedly. Erwin didn’t say anything, but still must’ve communicated some sort of answer to them.

“I’m Hange, I work with Levi and Erwin here, it’s lovely to meet you,” they waltzed over and shook your hand, the same look of excitement plastered on their face.

“y/n, this is the person I mentioned to you over text, Levi’s sound engineer. Now that you’re here,” he stood up off the couch, and walked over to the right-hand corner of the room where there was a side door. He pulled it open, and the sound of Levi’s playing instantly flooded the room as if it was some sort of portal. If it wasn’t for the fact that the song was a quiet piece to begin with, you doubt you would’ve been able to hear Erwin all that well.

“This is generally reserved for family members or spouses, so they get a good view of the performance while it’s happening. You’re more than welcome to use this, there should be a program on one of the seats so you can follow what's happening. By the sounds of it, he’s halfway through the Moment Musicaux opus 16 number 3.”

“Thank you, Mr. Smith-” before you could say anything else, he was ushering you into the room as a polite way to tell you to stop talking and get on with things.

You sat down right as Levi was finishing up the third piece. You picked up the program Erwin had left for you, and looked it over quickly.

 **Levi Ackerman Plays Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Lizst**  
_Rachmaninoff, Moment Musicaux, Op.16  
Rachmaninoff, Études Tableau, Op.33  
Scriabin, 2 Impromptu Op.12  
Scriabin, Études Op. 43_

__

Intermission

__

_Liszt Sonata in B Minor, S.178_

You heard the last few notes of Levi’s piece, a singular melody line with no chords accompanying it. There was a brief pause before the next piece. There was something about the few, split seconds of silence between the pieces that was so interesting. 

As soon as Levi started playing, you understood why the piece you’d just head was so slow. The borderline funeral music was contrasted with an insanely fast and complicated progression of notes, you could hardly even make out what the left hand was playing, the notes were all so fast. From where you were sitting, you had an incredible view of Levi. You were looking at the left side of his body, and had a perfect view of his hands as well. It was quite remarkable how fast he was able to move.Yet, when you glanced up at his face, he hardly looked phased by it. There were a few beads of sweat dripping down his face, but that was the only notable thing. He was incredibly calm looking, not a single ounce of emotion on his face. Most piano performances you’d seen, pianists always moved around or would have a wide range of facial expressions, but not Levi. His face was still hard to read, and his body would move only when necessary, if there was a big jump or he needed to put extra force onto the notes. He even made the lengthy jumps look simple from how little he exaggerated them. But where there was a lack of emotion in his body language and facial expression, he made up for it with his playing. It was some of the most powerful playing you’d ever heard, it was absolutely filled with emotion, pain, anger, everything you’d want to pour into a Rachmaninoff piece. 

Levi’s playing remained just as powerful throughout the entire performance. The only indication that he was even tired were the little beads of sweat you could see drip down the sides of his face - which was understandable considering how intense these pieces were, and how hot stage lights get. You’d been so absorbed in his performance, you’d lost track of how long you’d been there, and if it wasn’t for the audience clapping suddenly, you probably would have sat there all day.You weren’t familiar with all the pieces so you had no idea which piece was meant to be last, but considering the audience was clapping now you figured it must be time for the intermission. Levi bowed, and walked off the stage through a second set of doors, one connected directly to the lounge. You checked the time to see that you had about 15 minutes before you promised Carla you’d be back, which was just enough time to grab another cup of coffee from Hitch and head up. 

You walked out, to see Levi walking out of the bathroom again with a towel in hand, patting his face dry.

“Erwin, where’s my shirt?” he asked in a snobbish tone.

“It should be in the bag in the closet, it was just dry cleaned, remember?” Erwin said, without looking up from his computer, or really acknowledging Levi’s tone at all. He walked over to the closet and grabbed the dress-bag, and went back into the bathroom. He clearly didn’t realize you were standing there, as he left the door open slightly, and you had to force yourself not to look at his back as he changed shirts.

Erwin must’ve noticed you at some point, as he turned around to face you, with that same friendly look he seemed to always be sporting.

“How was the first half, Mrs. l/n?”

“Mr. Smith, please call me y/n, there’s no need to be so formal. And the first half was absolutely incredible, I truly can’t repay you for how kind you’ve been to me today, allowing me to attend this performance free of charge.”

“Who said it was free?” Levi piped in, walking out of the bathroom. The shirt he had changed into was the exact same as the one he had on before, so you figured he must carry around doubles for some reason.

“He’s just fucking around, right Levi?” Hange said, turning to face Levi. There was a playful smile across their face, they clearly enjoyed teasing Levi a bit too much.

“Obviously. What did you think?” He said, staring directly at you. It was the same question he’d asked last night. Interestingly enough, he didn’t look surprised at all to see you, like he had been expecting you.

“I mean, exactly what I was saying to Erwin, that-”

“No, not that shit. What did you actually think?” He asked again, with a strong emphasis on ‘actually’. Luckily, you had quickly gotten somewhat used to his short questions that you were able to infer what he was asking. After all, you didn’t want a repeat of last night with him thinking you were stupid for not picking up his queues right away.

“Any piece in particular? We’d be here all day if I gave you my honest thoughts on the full show,” You weren’t as keen on putting up with Levi’s bitchy attitude and Hange and Erwin seemed to be. 

“Whatever piece was your favourite, I don’t care.”

“Who said I had a favourite?” You said, raising your eyebrow slightly. While your words might have seemed a bit harsh, you still wanted to let Levi know that this was at least somewhat of a joke on your behalf. You didn't want to get into a fully fledged argument with one of the most famous pianists in the world.

“Are you always this much of a brat?” He asked impatiently.

_Let’s just fuck with him some more then._

You deliberately checked your watch, and clasped your hands together, and looked down in Erwin’s direction. 

“Would you look at that! Well Mr. Smith, I have to get back to work now, so I’ll see myself out.”

“By all means, I’m glad you were able to stop by even for just a moment,” Erwin said. You could tell by the way he spoke he was trying not to laugh in front of you, and Levi for that matter. He seemed to be enjoying Levi not getting his way almost more than you. “And please, call me Erwin. Have a lovely rest of your evening, y/n” He gave you another one of his warm, familiar smiles and you headed off, knowing Levi was at least somewhat annoyed from not getting the answer he’d been looking for.

By the time you and your team had finished putting up all the other paintings, the descriptions, and cleaning up the whole gallery, it was about 12 pm. You locked everything up, thanked the few security guards who were on nightshift, and headed home finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was literally no way I wasn't going to add in Hange they're so iconic. Also don't mind me subtly slipping in the various ships in the AOT universe throughout the story, like Jean and Marco together ;) it's too fun not to.
> 
> Also if you even notice a typo or spelling mistake please feel free to mention it! I read through each chapter multiple times but sometimes I miss things.


	3. My Foolish Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter doesn't have a specific piece like the previous two that Levi performs, it's more just background music that plays during the scenes. This story is going to have a mix of jazz and classical music, so if you enjoy the experience of listening to the songs I write about while reading, I'd still recommend doing it with this chapter, and just put the song on loop for the whole thing.

_Link To Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2LFVWBmoiw_

The opening day went by incredibly smoothly, definitely thanks to your team's hard work. There wasn’t much to do once the exhibit opened besides float around, answer any questions and make sure there wasn’t anyone suspicious looking (even though there were security guards posted everywhere.) You filled out some paperwork for a local highschool that was coming by on a field trip, and finalized the plans for Jean’s art installation as well. He sent you all the descriptions of the drawings that you needed to place beside his artwork when it was mounted, and his stories were all very touching to read through and print off. Your hunch had been right about the boy with the freckles, there was no way Jean wasn’t in love with him. Especially this one drawing, on the boy looking over his shoulder back at the viewer, standing in a sunflower field. It was a very touching piece and you were sure that you’d be able to sell it very easily.

At the end of the day, you called in everyone that was working at the moment for a quick celebration.

“I’d like to thank all of you for your tremendous hard work today, everything went over incredibly smoothly to the point that I hardly even had to do much, and I’m sure the rest of you can agree. I hope everyone has a lovely evening, please enjoy yourselves knowing your hard work truly paid off tonight. This is perhaps one of the easiest exhibition openings I’ve had in a long time, thanks to my incredible team here.” They all cheered slightly, and thanked you as well for your hard work, and slowly your employees started to trickle out of the museum as you were closing everything up and saying your goodbyes to the overnight security guards.

You finished closing up, and headed downstairs to meet Hitch, who said she had a surprise planned for you when you finished work. She was standing by the main doors of the gallery, chatting with Marlo. On second thought, she was talking at Marlo instead, he just looked like he was happily listening to her rant about whatever it was that was on her mind. She spotted you down the hall, and waved at you, with a huge grin on her face. 

“Hey, y/n, how did the exhibit go today?” Hitch asked you.

“It went pretty well actually. We didn’t run into any sort of complications anywhere which was good. Anything interesting happen at work?”

“Nope, same old same old. Now, back to the main event- Marco and I agreed that we should all go out for drinks tonight to celebrate your gallery opening!” She said excitedly. You glanced over at Marlo, who gave you a funny look, as if to say ‘I didn’t really agree, I just went along with it.’

“Hitch, I change out exhibitions all the time, it’s not that big of a deal-”

“Oh come on,” she said, drawing out the vowels, whining slightly. “When’s the last time we went out for drinks? I gotta take advantage of the opportunity when it arises, ya know? Come, I wanna get there before too many people show up.”

“I’m still in my work clothes-”

“Oh would you relax and get on with it? Your work clothes look hot, it’s literally a black pencil skirt and a navy blue button up. Just undo a few buttons and you’ll have that ‘sexy secretary’ look, see?” She walked over and quickly undid the top three buttons for you. “Hot, see? We’re going now.” she grabbed your wrist and proceeded to drag you out of the building, Marlo jogging to catch up slightly with the two of you.

You all piled into a taxi, and headed off to Hitch’s bar of choice. You didn’t really question where you were going, until the cab arrived and you realized she was dragging you to one of the nicer bars in the city. Marlo paid for the cab fare, and you mentioned to him you’d pay him your share of the cab fee, but he insisted he’d cover it.

The bar itself was lavish on the inside. It was a very classic looking bar, with beautifully polished wooden countertops, intricate tiling on the ceiling, very dim lighting, and most importantly, a very impressive collection of liquors on the shelf behind the bar. Towards the back, there was some live music going on, a pianist, a drummer and a double-bassist playing jazz songs together quietly, just loud enough to add some ambiance to the bar. Perhaps going to a high-end bar was Hitch’s way of making sure she didn’t get plastered, because as much as she was used to ordering multiple rounds of tequila shots for everyone, she liked to try and seem somewhat sophisticated at bars like these and not get blackout drunk. It was a pretty nice bar after all. The word bar wasn’t even fitting, cocktail lounge would be a much better way to describe the venue. 

You sat down at the bar counter with Hitch and Marlo, and you three ordered drinks for yourself. The bartender was very talented, and fast at making cocktails, it was clear he was super experienced. You sipped the Negroni you’d ordered, when you felt somewhat grab your left shoulder firmly. You glanced up, to see Erwin Smith smiling down at you.

“Hello, Mrs l/n, what’re the odds of us running into you here?” He asked. You glanced behind him to see Hange, chatting with one of the bartenders, they clearly weren’t paying you or Erwin much attention.

“I thought we agreed that we were on a first name basis, Erwin?” You said with a playful smile. He smirked, and raised his hands in defense.

“Force of habit, y/n, my apologies. I couldn’t help but notice you and your friends walking in. Myself, Hange and Levi are out having a slight toast to his final performance.” You looked around slightly to see if you could find Levi, and Erwin must’ve picked up on it. “He popped out back momentarily for a smoke, he should be back in a few minutes.”

“Ahh, it’s quite alright, I won’t hold up your evening. Give him my regards, would you?”

You felt Hitch tap your right shoulder, looking a bit concerned.

“You know this guy, y/n?” She asked, giving him a bit of a foul look. She was notorious for trying to ward off creeps whenever the two of you went drinking together.

“Actually, yes I do Hitch. This is Erwin Smith,” Erwin extended his hand out in an offer to shake Hitch’s hand, to which she looked slightly confused.

“I’m Levi Ackerman’s manager, we recently had a performance at the venue y/n works at, so we’ve become somewhat acquainted over the course of the weekend.” He explained to her. He must’ve been able to sense her slight uncertainty. 

Hange walked over, mumbling something about how Erwin needs to stop being so sociable, and started pulling at his sleeve trying to get him to go with them back to their seat. 

“It appears I’m wanted,” he said with a slight chuckle. “I’ll leave you and your friends be. It was lovely bumping into you though, y/n” 

“It was lovely to see you as well, Erwin,” You said with a wave as Hange dragged them back over to their booth.

“Do you always speak so formally?” Hitch asked, looking a bit dumbfounded.

“What’re you talking about?”

“y/n, it felt like I was watching a live action Hemmingway story right there. It’s not the 50’s, stop talking like it is,” Hitch flicked your arm slightly, and took another sip of her drink.

“She’s only being polite Hitch, calm down.” Marlo chimed in, laughing a bit at how annoyed she was.

As the evening progressed, you noticed Hitch and Marlo spent more time talking to each other than talking amongst the three of you, which you had somewhat expected. Hitch and Marlo both being lightweights, it only took a handful of drinks for them to both be rather plastered. 

“Alright you two, I think it’s time we call a cab for the both of you.” You took Hitch’s drink out of her hand, and set down the half empty glass onto the bar counter. The bartender was pretty understanding, and quickly cleaned up, not caring about if she was planning to finish her drink.

“Awwww, you’re no fun y/n, I’m not even that drunk!” Hitch tried to protest.

“She’s right Hitch, we should get you home.” While Marlo was also a lightweight, he seemed to still think pretty rationally while he was drunk, which was one of the nice things about going out for drinks with him. “I’ve got this one y/n, I know where she lives so I’ll make sure she gets home. Will you just take a cab?”

“I actually only live a few blocks away Marlo, so I’ll just walk. It’s a lovely evening anyways.”

“Alright. Just please be careful, okay”

“Of course, Marlo. I’ll see you at work Monday, alright?”

“Sounds good y/n”, and with that he helped Hitch walk out. She was trying her best to act as if she could walk properly, but was definitely leaning on Marlo for support while walking out.

_Hell, what’s one more drink before I head out._ You thought to yourself, and decided to order yourself a negroni. You tuned it to the music playing in the back, a quaint Bill Evans piece, as you sipped your drink.

You noticed someone sit down beside you, and he turned to face you with a sly smirk on his face. You didn’t recognize him at all, and the man reeked of cheap cigarettes and even cheaper cologne. You wondered why on earth he was at a bar as nice as this one considering he looked like he’d wandered in off the streets.

“You’re quite the pretty young lady, ya know?” He leaned in closer towards you, and you could practically smell the alcohol coming from his breath.

“Yes, I’m well aware.”

“No need to be rude princess, I was only complimenting you.” he looked rather taken aback, probably expecting you to thank him for the ‘compliment’ rather than agree with him.

“I know. And I agree, I think I’m pretty as well. Is there a problem?”

“Why’re you being such a bitch-” you noticed his voice quiet down, and glanced up to notice someone had placed their hand on his shoulder, indicating to him that he seriously needed to shut up.

“Hi honey, the company dinner ran longer than expected. Did you wait long?” That familiar, monotone voice was actually comforting for once. You looked up to see Levi staring right at you, his grip on the man's shoulder tightening with every second he stood there.

“Not at all, darling, maybe 5 minutes or so?” You joined in on his little act of being lovers, hoping the man sitting beside you would get discouraged and leave.

“Now, you sewer rat piece of scum.” He turned to face the man, and Levi was pretty fortunate that the guy was sitting down, because Levi actually was able to tower over him despite how short he was, making him seem much more intimidating. “What business do you have with my...wife.” You could see him spit out the last word of the sentence like it was a struggle to say.

“Look man, there wasn’t a ring on her fucking finger, how the hell was I supposed to know?”

“Well, now you know. You’re in my seat, move.” You couldn’t tell if the man beside you stood up on his own accord of if Levi forcibly yanked him out of the seat, but he stood up, looking rather petrified, and quickly walked out of the bar. Levi scoffed a bit, a look of pure disgusted plastered across his face.

“You didn’t have to intervene, Mr. Ackerman, I could’ve handled it. But thank you.” You said, taking another sip of your negroni. 

“I’m sure you could’ve, but I couldn’t let you have all the fun now could I? And call me Levi. We’re at a bar, formalities are weird.”

“Well, I thank you Levi.”

There was a bit of an awkward pause, both of you waiting for the other to say something.

“Are.. you okay? I can call you a cab, or..”

“I’m perfectly fine Levi, situations like that happen so often I’m used to dealing with them now. And I’d like to at least finish my drink first before I call a cab.” He looked down at your drink, and looked a bit embarrassed he hadn’t noticed it and had just tried to usher you out of the bar instead. “I ran into Erwin and Hange earlier, so if I’m keeping you, by all means-”

“Ah, they left a little while ago. I left for a cigarette and when I came back, Erwin and Hange were gone, and Erwin had texted me to say that he was taking Hange home because they were too far gone to get home on their own.” He explained. “I was on my way out when I noticed that piece of shit, and it was just my luck I happened to know the woman he was busy harassing.”

“God Levi, you were out smoking when I ran into Erwin, out smoking a second time just now. I didn’t take you to be a heavy smoker.”

“Two cigarettes in an evening isn’t heavy, you brat.” You chuckled a bit at how offended he sounded over thinking he had a serious smoking problem. 

“My apologies then, Levi. I heard from Erwin you were out celebrating your last show, how was the final performance?”

“It was alright, it went as expected.” He sat one elbow up on the bar, resting his chin in his hand. He tilted his head slightly to face you, looking straight into your eyes.

“You never answered my question. What you thought of my performance on Saturday.”

_Still on about that shit, huh._

You thought about it for a moment, and the longer you took to say something, the more irritated you could see him getting, clearly expecting an answer.

“I’ll tell you what. You tell me why you care so much about my opinion, and I’ll tell you what said opinion is. It’s not like there aren’t ample of critics out there that’ll be writing articles about your performance. Why’re you so damn adamant about hearing what I thought of it.”

The look on his face quickly shifted from a ‘answer the damn question’ to a ‘are you fucking kidding me’ and it was a bit hard not to giggle at his impatience. He sighed, and signaled the bartender over to order a drink. You couldn’t help but laugh at him feeling the need to order a drink before continuing to chat with you. The bartender quickly poured his drink, having only ordered a glass of scotch, and he took a sip.

“Are you always such a nuisance?” he asked bluntly.

“Are you always so blunt?” you asked back in response. He just looked at you as a response, though he looked a bit amused by the way you matched his energy at times. You had to admit that the few times you’d chatted with Levi, it was nice to have someone to keep up some sort of playful banter with. 

There was a long pause before he spoke again, and the tone of his voice was very different compared to how he usually spoke. He seemed almost unsure of himself, and you could tell he was trying his best to be honest with you.

“Look, y/n. I know critics will have written articles about my performance within the next few days, and I can read them at my leisure, but they’re all.. Critical, obviously. Critics are just burnouts who never had the dedication to become serious musicians so they just take out their anger about being burnouts on those who are living their dreams. They’ll point out any sort of timing or pacing errors, write about how the dynamics were wrong, belittle me for the modifications I make to the songs. I don’t care for playing pieces traditionally, I’ll play them however I want. I don’t feel like reading articles about why I suck at what I do.” You continued to work at your drink, giving him as much time as he needed to continue explaining himself. 

“However...” his voice trailed off, and he got much quieter suddenly. His voice had a bit of softness to it. “You actually interpret my pieces, and give them meaning. You know, I hadn’t realized I was in a bad mood Friday until you pointed it out, that you could hear it in my playing.” He took a long sip of his drink, finishing it off. You supposed it must’ve taken him a fair bit of drunken courage to say all that to someone he’s known for a matter of three days.  
“Now, Mrs l/n, what did you think of my performance saturday? Or even just your favourite piece”

“I thought you didn’t like formalities, Mr. Ackerman?”

Instead of harping at you to answer the question like you figured he would, he just stared at you, waiting for you to continue. 

“Well, Levi. My personal favourite was Rachmaninoff’s Moment Musicaux, specifically the 4th piece, though the 6th was rather incredible as well. Don’t take what I’m about to say personally of course.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“I’ve noticed this in most of your playing, but there’s this overwhelming sense of sadness in everything you play, but you mask it with anger. Those who only walk by, or catch a moment of your performance would just assume you have some pent up anger issues, but when you listen to you perform in full, it’s evident the anger is just a coverup for how unbearably sad your playing is. There’s a few moments where pain and resentment seep out of your playing, and it’s those moments that make it such a powerful performance.”

Levi seemed to take a moment to process everything you’d just told him, and once again it was impossible to tell if he was offended or not by what you’d said. 

“I feel a bit bad, I feel like I’m just ripping you apart every time you ask for my opinion,” you said with a slight chuckle. You looked over, and to your relief, Levi had a slight smile on his face.

“It’s really not every day I get psychoanalyzed by a complete stranger. It’s an interesting take on the piece, thank you.” Levi glanced down at your cup, and you noticed it was empty. 

“I suppose I said I’d just finish this drink, now didn’t I?” You said, remembering how you'd said you’d call a cab after you finished your negroni.

“You did indeed.” You waited to see if Levi would tell you to get going, offer to get you a cab, really anything that would indicate he thought it was best for you to leave. But he didn’t.

“Well, what’s just one more drink? Have one as well, Levi. It’s on me. As compensation for my psychoanalysis, at least” 

Levi smirked slightly, and simply said “If you insist,” as you signalled for the bartender.  
“Do you want anything to drink in particular Levi?”

“Surprise me.”

With that, you ordered a martini for yourself, and an old fashioned for Levi.

“So, Levi. What country are you off to next?” Levi just gave you a confused look, clearly telling you he had no idea what you were talking about. “It was your last performance tonight, was it not? Where’s your next performance? Austria? France is also close I suppose.”

“Oh. I’m not on tour anymore, tonight was the last night. We weren’t celebrating the last show for this venue, we were celebrating the last show of the tour.”

“Oh, I didn’t even realize. So will you be heading back home then?”

“No, not that either. Hange wants me to use a specific recording studio here in the city for an upcoming album I’ll be putting out, so we’re staying here for about a month I’d say, depending on how everything goes.”

“Well, I hope everything goes well with the album, I’ll be looking forward to it.”

You slowly started to lose track of how long you’d been there, or how many drinks you and Levi had had together. It seemed like the more Levi drank, the easier he was to chat with, and the two of you ended up chatting for most of the night together. You asked him all sorts of questions, about his tour, his upcoming album. For someone who seemed as private as Levi, he seemed rather content to tell you about his life. He talked about the museums in France he stopped by (you had to fight the urge to tell him how jealous you were of him, being able to tour some of the fanciest galleries in Paris), or victorian style concert halls he had the opportunity to perform in, just work related questions. He’d ask you the occasional question too, about work and the gallery, nothing too personal. Memories of the evening seemed to get hazier and hazier as the night went on, but one thing was for sure- you found yourself oddly excited over the fact that Levi would be staying in Germany for the next month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Considering Levi's mother was a sex worker, do you really think he would allow creepy men to harass women? No way, he definitely isn't gonna let that happen considering he probably grew up watching men treat his mom like shit. Also don't mind me literally psychoanalyzing Levi every chance I get. y/n is just hella blunt sometimes, especially when it comes to interpreting art, she's pretty damn good at it too. 
> 
> Let me also just clarify Hange and Erwin aren't a ship, they're just friends lmao. I don't want their relationship to be taken out of context.


	4. Lament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The piece for this starts a bit early on in the chapter. I also like the youtube video for it a lot cause you can actually see the performers hands, and it's easy to imagine what Levi's hands would look like playing it, especially for those of you who aren't piano players like myself.

_Link to Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ6-abacf9E_

You woke up to the sound of rain, gently pittering against the window. You slowly opened your eyes, and despite it being almost completely dark, you realized there was nothing recognizable about where you were. The only thing lighting the room was the faint light from the streetlights that was coming in through the big windows in the bedroom. You noted that the bed you were laying in was incredibly comfortable, the sheets felt as if they’d just been washed, and they had a distinct smell to them. It was oddly floral, like lotus, but then there was this afternote of cedar and musk to it that made it oddly comforting. You slipped out of the bed, and realized you were still wearing your clothes from the evening before, the same skirt and blouse from work yesterday. 

You made your way over to the door, and opened it to see a very sleek looking apartment. All the fixtures and furniture seemed to be dark grey or black. It was very minimalistic, but it had a strange feeling of coldness to it, there wasn’t any real life or warmth to the apartment. There was a living area right in front of you, a kitchen to your left, a small hallway that you figured had to be the entrance way. You really couldn’t remember where you were or how you’d gotten there, the last thing you remembered was having drinks with Levi-

_Is this his apartment? But it’s not like he lives here, maybe it’s a rental for the month? Where the hell even is the bastard?_

You walked over to the kitchen, to try and check the time on the oven clock. 

_5:17_

It was pretty early in the morning, and you generally didn’t wake up this early, especially on sunday mornings. You were about to walk back into the bedroom to see if you could find any more of your belongings, when you noticed you could hear piano coming from the opposite direction of the bedroom, to your left. Though it wasn’t classical like what Levi usually played, it was soft jazz chords, and you could faintly make out the melody. You walked over to the door where you could hear the piano coming from, but stopped yourself before knocking and going in. You didn’t want to disturb him if he was practicing, so you just figured you’d leave it be. 

You turned to walk back to the living area, when you noticed the music stopped. Confused, you turned around to see Levi swinging the door open, looking just as confused as you. You stared at him for a few seconds, before realizing he wasn’t going to be the first one to say something between the two of you. He seemed to have this weird arrogance of just expecting everyone to do the explaining for him, he hardly bothered to make conversation first when it wasn’t necessary.

This was the first time you’d seen Levi in casual clothes. While it was nothing extraordinary, he was still incredibly polished looking. He was wearing a black knit sweater, loosely tucked into a pair of cream pleated pants. It wasn’t a drastic change from the constant suits he seemed to always be wearing, but it was still a nice change nonetheless.

“Why’d you stop?” You finally asked him.

“I heard footsteps.” He still had a rather blunt tone of voice when speaking. It never failed to surprise you that one of the most expressionless and monotone people you’d ever met in your life could be so expressive when performing.

“Why the hell are you awake?” he continued, still looking confused.

“I could ask you the same thing. Who the hell practices piano at 5 in the morning?”

“Me. And answer my question.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re a real bossy son of a bitch? I have no idea why I woke up, it’s not like it’s unusual to wake up randomly throughout the night and go back to sleep.”

“I didn’t wake you?”

Levi suddenly showing some form of concern, if you can even call it that, was enough to make you almost lose your train of thought it was so unexpected. He certainly had an obstinate way of going about things, questioning you like a damn drill sergeant just to ask if he’d woken you up by playing piano too loudly.

“No, you didn’t, I couldn’t even hear you playing till I came out of the bedroom. Speaking of which, mind telling me how I wound up in your bed last night? We didn’t like..” your voice trailed off, and you hoped he’d actually be able to fill in the blanks for once and get what you were asking him. 

“Yeah, I actually went to the trouble of putting your clothes back on your body after we fucked, and tucked you into bed too. Tsk, What sort of question is that?”

“Jesus, I was just asking, it’s not like-”

“You think I’d ever actually stoop low enough to lay so much as a finger on a drunken stranger I hardly even know?”

You could see him getting more and more upset. You’d seen a few of his little fits of rage with Erwin and Hange, but this was different. There wasn’t any sort of jokingness with his voice now. He was visibly upset, and you weren’t going to try and ask why.

“Let’s not fight Levi, it’s not even six in the morning. What were you playing before I interrupted you?” You asked, quickly trying to change the subject.

“You didn’t interrupt me.” Levi turned back around, leaving the door open and sat down at the piano. He looked at you through the doorway, with a confused expression on his face, and you realized he must’ve been expecting you to follow him in. You followed him in and glanced around the room, there wasn’t much in it. A stack on large books - presumably sheet music - and some stacks of black foam. The walls were entirely black foam, and you quickly realized it must’ve been to help soundproof the room. There wasn’t anything besides sheet music, and the baby grand piano in the room, it was rather bleak and empty.

“Scooch,” you told him bluntly. He scoffed slightly, and tilted his head up to look at you. 

“What?”

“Scooch. There’s nowhere for me to sit.”

“So stand.”

“Do you have to be so obstinate all the time?” Levi sighed, rolling his eyes slightly and proceeded to shift over on the piano bench, so that there was enough room for you to sit down. It was still a rather tight squeeze through, you were pressed completely up against the right side of his body, sharing the bench together.

Levi didn’t bother telling you what he was playing, he just started playing, expecting you to follow. Despite wanting to ask him what the song was, you figured it was best not to interrupt him and let him play the entire piece.

This was a very different view of Levi compared to at the performance hall. For starters, you could see his hands up close, and it was oddly rather beautiful to watch his hands move as he played the piano. Normally Levi seemed to play rather harsh and loud pieces that required a lot of force, but this piece was very different. His hands touched all the notes so delicately, there was a gentleness in the way he played. 

Levi’s playing was beautifully accompanied by the sound of rain hitting the window, it’d been raining since you’d gotten up. While the room was surrounded by soundproofing foam, there was still a large window to Levi’s left, and you could see cars starting to drive by, people who had to start early morning shifts. It was still early spring, so the sun wouldn’t be rising for a little while longer, but the light from passing cars would sometimes make the room a tad bit brighter. 

Every now and then, you’d gaze up at Levi’s face. He wore a very focused expression, but you could tell he was far less tense and agitated than he was five minutes ago. This was one of the only few instances you could remember seeing him this peaceful looking, the first time being at your gallery, looking at paintings. 

Levi quickly glanced over at you, making eye contact with you and catching you staring at him. He didn’t make much of it, and looked back at the piano and focused on his playing, though you felt a bit embarrassed that he caught you staring at his face. You focused back on his hands, and watching him play.

_I could sit here all day and watch this_ you thought to yourself. 

The piece finished, and Levi held the last chord for a while, letting it resonate throughout the room.

“That’s pretty. what is it?” You said softly, trying not to overpower the sound of the chord slowly fading into the room.

“It’s one of the pieces the pianist performed last night, it’s been stuck in my head since we left the bar.” He finally lifted his hands off the piano keys, the sound of the piano stopped abruptly, and turned his head to face you.

“I didn’t take you to be a jazz person.”

“What can I say y/n, I love a good cocktail lounge piano from time to time.”

You noticed the time you and Levi would look at eachother had slowly been getting longer, and you found yourself looking into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity, both of you trying to figure out what to say next, or what to do. For a brief moment, you could’ve sworn you saw Levi shift his gaze from your eyes down ever so slightly, but he quickly looked back down at the piano, breaking the eye contact you’d been holding for quite a while now.

Levi sighed, and stood up suddenly.

“I’m going out for a smoke. My wallet should be sitting on the kitchen counter, take out twenty dollars and buy yourself a cab ride home. If you take out anything more, I’m coming to your gallery and stealing one of your paintings.”

You chuckled a bit, not really sure how to process Levi’s humour. If it even was humour that is, for all you know he could also be 100% serious about stealing from you.

“And what if I take out extra money just so you swing by my gallery and see me again?”

Your comment clearly caught him off guard, and frankly it caught you a bit off guard too.

_Fuck I must be tired, or maybe still half drunk, to be blurting shit out like that._

“Well you won't be paying me back with just a free painting, that’s for sure.” and with that he walked out of the piano room, leaving you to sit and wonder what the hell he possibly meant by that. 

You grabbed your things, not bothering to even look for his wallet. It was a nice gesture, but you could pay for your own damn cab ride home. You glanced over to the balcony, to steal one last glance of Levi. He was leaning against the railing, taking slow drags from his cigarette. The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon, and the sky had a dark pink colour to it, the faint glow of the sun hilightling Levi’s features. You didn’t bother saying anything before heading out, you just left his apartment and went downstairs to the main lobby to wait for the taxi you’d called to take you home.

... 

Sunday passed by rather quickly. You figured you must’ve been rather tired as you ended up sleeping well into the afternoon when you got home. You had a few missed calls from Marlo, who left you several frantic voicemails about where you were, if you got home alright, and why you weren’t picking up. You called him back to let him know you were okay, and he sounded really relieved. You could also hear Hitch in the back talking to him, but figured it was best not to ask since it was already pretty obvious what they’d been up to last night.

... 

It was about noon the next day, and you’d been working all morning in your office, organizing paperwork and booking consultations with artists who were looking for a place to showcase their art. You grabbed your purse and threw on your coat, about to head out and find some place to buy lunch. 

The way things were going, you figured it shouldn’t even be that surprising to randomly run into Levi anymore. It was almost as if wherever you went, you were sure to bump into him somehow. 

He was slowly walking around the gallery, though this time he was looking at the Rembrandt exhibit that had been installed Saturday. He was wearing a long, wool grey coat with a black turtleneck underneath it, and black pants.  
“Here to steal one of my paintings, Mr Ackerman?” You said, and he turned to greet you, with a mildly confused look on his face.

“We’re at work Mr Ackerman, formalities are a part of business.” You explained to him. You were starting to get better at being able to pick up on his cues.

“I see. No Mrs l/n, I’m not here to steal the paintings, nor am I here to do any business, really. I wanted to see the exhibit, that’s all.” He turned back towards the painting, and he had that look of calmness on his face you’d started to look forward to seeing again.

You’d been contemplating how to thank Levi for being so considerate over the weekend, and now that he was here in front of you, you figured you might as well take advantage of the opportunity you’d been presented.

“Mr Ackerman, are you by any chance free right now?” You blurted out. He looked at you, mildly puzzled once again. 

“I happen to have a few hours before I need to start work, yes. Why do you ask?” He said each word rather slowly, as if he was reluctant to answer you.

“Wonderful. Have you eaten? I was about to head out for lunch, and would love to treat you, as a thanks for looking out for me this weekend.”

“You don’t need to do that y/n-”

“I’m not asking for your permission to buy you lunch Mr Ackerman, I’m asking if you’ve eaten.” You said, interrupting him. Your firmness clearly took him aback a bit, but you noticed him smirk ever so slightly before letting out a sigh.

“I haven’t eaten, no.”

“Then it’s settled.”

…

You walked for a few blocks, trying to think of a place to go to eat, and Levi walked alongside you. You’d ask the occasional question about work, or Erwin, but nothing much. You decided to take Levi to a local bakery that had phenomenal sandwiches that you could take with you to go somewhere, though you both ended up eating them on the walk. You figured since it was his first time in the city and he was here for just a month, you may as well try and show him around a bit. 

“Where are you even taking me?” he asked you bluntly.

“Could you be a bit more patient Levi? You’re getting a tour of the city from a local, these opportunities don’t present themselves very often.” Levi simply let out a ‘tsk’ in response and followed alongside you. Neither of you spoke, as Levi clearly wasn’t one to make heavy conversation, yet… it wasn’t an awkward silence between the two of you. It was rather comfortable actually, neither of you felt the need to try and make conversation to compensate for something, it was nice enough just to be in eachothers company.

You arrived at the park you wanted to go to, and while it was still a rather bleak time of year, it was still pretty. The sky was a bit grey, and it was still cool out considering it was early spring, but the trees were starting to bud every so slightly, a few trees even had flowers growing from them. The park was pretty much empty, considering it was the middle of a weekday, aside from the occasional senior citizen out for a stroll.

“Do you want to sit?” You proposed.

“No, let’s keep walking.” he said. He said. You walked around for a few minutes, at a pretty slow pace, just taking in all the scenery from the park.

“How is your upcoming album going?” You asked, finally deciding to make some conversation with him. You couldn't spend the entire walk in silence.

“Progressing as it usually does. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Do you have any focus for it? Like a tone or a selection of artists?”

“I’m focusing on Chopin, yes. Mainly his ballades, and a few impromptus as well. Though I haven’t quite figured out what tone I want the pieces to have, that part is puzzling me right now.”

“I’m quite a fan of Chopin’s ballades, myself. I’m looking forward now to hearing what you do with them, I’m sure you’ll have a unique approach.”

“You mean you think I’ll play them with anger and resentment.”

“Pfft, I didn’t say that.” You said, chuckling a bit.

“Old habits die hard I suppose.”

“Indeed they do. So this is your first time in Frankfurt, correct?” 

“Yes, it is. I’ve had a few performances in Berlin before, but never here.”

“Ahh, Berlin is also lovely. What did you do in Berlin?”

“Perform.” He said, with an unamused tone.

“I could slap you sometimes. I meant besides performing, Berlin is filled with touristy things, and interesting venues to visit. Surely you’ve done a bit of exploring.”

He seemed to think it over a bit, he took a while to answer you.

“No, not really. I’d either practice, be performing, or catching up on sleep. I suppose the only time I really went anywhere was to the art museum for an hour, that was it. I don’t really take traveling for work as a vacation to go see stupid tourist attractions and shit, I’m there for work after all.”

“You seem to have a real affinity for art museums, huh?”

Levi let out what sounded like a slight chuckle, and slipped his hands into his pockets.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

You glanced over at him for a moment, and saw him genuinely smiling. Not some half assed smirk, a true, genuine smile on his face.

You ended up walking to a fountain in the center of the park, and you stopped in front of it. You looked over to see Levi rummaging through his pocket, before pulling out two pennies, and offering you one. You took the penny from him, and watched him toss it into the fountain.

“Making wishes, are we? I figured you would’ve hated something like the concept of wishing wells.” you teased.

“I do.” He slipped his hands back into his pockets, and turned to face you. “Just in a good mood, that’s all.”

“I see.” You said, before tossing your coin into the fountain.

 _I have no idea what’s put him in such a good mood, but let him start having these good moods more often, he seems like he needs it,_ you thought to yourself as you watched the coin sink to the bottom of the fountain.

“What’d you wish for.” He asked you.

“Pfft, that ruins the whole point of a wish. If it comes true, you’ll know.” 

He gave you a puzzled look, but ended up chuckling a bit, shaking his head. 

“Let me walk you back to work, your hour is just about up.” 

“Sounds good, Levi.”

And with that you two headed back to the art center, neither of you saying a word the entire walk. 

There’s awkward silence, which seems to be the most common type. Then if you’re lucky enough, there’s comfortable silence, when you’re with somebody that you don’t feel the need to yak about useless things to to try and make up for some lack of connection. But the silence you and Levi shared the whole walk back- You really had no idea what that was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I want to apologize if the pacing of this seems a bit off, this is my first time ever writing a fan fiction, and trying to build a relationship with Levi - one of the most emotionally unavailable characters - from scratch is a bit harder of a task than I imagined it would be. So thank you for bearing with me through this learning process, I'm sure in the future I'll write stories where you and Levi have a preexisting relationship to make pacing a bit better. Though I cannot lie, this chapter was pretty fun to write. I can only imagine how much more fun it's going to get once things start.. picking up pace a bit ;)


	5. Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So I finally figured out how to add timestamps to links, so the songs will be a lot shorter and I'll be able to time the actual part of the song I'm talking about with the link of the story, so that's nice :)
> 
> I'll also include the link to the song both at the beginning of the story, and where Levi starts playing so you have an idea of where to start just so it's easier.

_Link to Song: https://youtu.be/r_KmbW-C8Mc?t=151_

Four days had past since your lunch with Levi, and you hadn’t heard from him since. You didn’t give it much thought, as not only did you figure he was busy with work, you were quite busy yourself. It was the beggining of the month, and you were overseeing all the finances from both the exhibition and the art work you’d sold over the month. While it might be more stressful, you preferred having a smaller team of people and taking on more work yourself. Immersing yourself in your work was never a challenge, and it sometimes gets to the point Hitch will have to forcibly drag you out of your office and make you take a short break. 

You were replying to some emails, when you heard a knock at your office door. 

“Come in.”

Carla, one of your employees, opened the door and poked her head in. 

“Hey y/n, I just wanted to let you know there’s someone asking for you? Are you meeting with anyone today?”

You quickly glanced over your schedule on your computer, but there wasn’t anything that indicated you had a client meeting.

“No, I have nothing written down here. Did they say what they needed me for?”

“I’m not really sure, they didn’t really seem to know themselves, just that they needed to chat with you, if that makes any sense? Though they did mention something about… Levi I think the name was? Does it sound familiar?”

Of course, if something was going to randomly interrupt your day it was going to have to do with Levi Ackerman. 

You chuckled a bit, before responding with “yes, it sounds quite familiar. Thank you for letting me know Carla, let them know I’ll be down in about five minutes? I just have some emails I need to finish up here, then I’ll be available.”

“Alright y/n, sorry to bother you! They’re waiting near the front of the gallery.” She said before leaving, shutting the door behind her.

There were a few emails left, and one in particular caught your attention. It was an announcement about an upcoming charity benefit at an art gallery in France. While you normally get emails for these things, you’d never actually gone to one, mainly because of work. It was at the end of the month, and you had to decide if you were going to reserve a seat or not.

You figured it’d be best to sit on it for a while, and not make any decisions right now. You doubted you could fit it into your schedule however.

After finishing up your last few emails, you walked over to the front entrance of the gallery, where you saw someone standing, looking around at some of the paintings on display. You recognized them from the few times you’d seen them with Erwin, and realized it must be Hange. 

“Hange, right?” you asked as you approached them. You extended your hand, offering to shake theirs.

“Yes, I’m Hange, I think we’ve met before, some time last week?” Hange grabbed your hand and shook it, rather aggressively at that.

“Yes, I remember you work with Levi. I actually think I bumped into you briefly Saturday evening too, I was at the same bar you, Erwin and Levi were at for drinks.”

“Really? Gosh, what a coincidence! I saw Erwin chatting with someone, but couldn't really see who it was, and didn’t pay it much attention considering he’s always chatting with pretty women whenever we go out. If I’d seen that it was you though, I totally would’ve said hi, I’m so sorry I didn’t notice you!” They said. Their enthusiasm and energy was astounding, yet again. You’d never seen someone so eccentric before.

“It’s not a problem at all Hange, I would’ve loved to have said hello to you as well, but I didn’t want to bother you considering you were out celebrating.”

“You wouldn’t have bothered us at all! Don’t be a stranger, next time come over and chat with us. You’re pretty interesting too, Levi-” They quickly stopped mid sentence, as if they were about to say something they weren’t supposed to. “What was I going to say… right! Do you have a moment you’re free within the next few hours or so?”

“I.. em..” Normally you were quick to think on your feet, but Hange’s out of the blue question definitely caught you off guard momentarily.

“Levi… wants you to listen to his playing? I don’t really understand it, but he said you’d know what he meant and not to question it and just ‘get my ass to your art gallery and ask you’ as he put it.” They said, rubbing their temple slightly. You were able to read Hange like an open book, and they clearly were a bit fed up with Levi’s behaviour.  
“I’m honestly not sure if I have a moment today to pop over, I’d have to check my schedule. Is there a way you could send me an audio file for me to listen to? I can just email Levi or Erwin with my thoughts.”

“Aah, see that’s part of why I’m here. We can’t run the risk of things being leaked, it’s just a precaution we put in place, so it’s best if you came in person to hear it. I can let Levi know you can’t come by-”

“No! No, it’s not that” you interrupted them, which took them aback. To be honest, it even took you aback a bit.

_Why am I wanting to make the time to listen to his playing so badly?_

“I’d be happy to analyze his playing. How far is the recording studio from here?”

“Hmm… about a 10 minute drive? It’s not that far at all.”

“I’m almost positive I’m busy all day, however I get off work at 5?”

Hange thought for a second, cross comparing their schedule to yours to see if it lined up.

“That should be fine. Levi’s chauffeur will be waiting out front for you so you don’t need to worry about driving or anything. ”

_Levi’s… Chauffeur? How much money does this man HAVE?_

“That’s awfully kind of you, thank you Hange. And please extend the thanks to Levi for me as well, him lending me his chauffeur is much appreciated.”

Hange gave you a warm smile, clearly touched by how thankful you were.

“I’ll let him know. I suppose I’ll see you around 5 then.”

“Thank you, Hange.”

And with that Hange walked out of the gallery, and you headed back to your office to plug away at the remaining work you had.

…

You’d been watching the clock for the past few minutes, waiting for your shift to be over. While normally you hated leaving at 5pm on the dot, this time you figured you could make an exception. Leaving right on time just felt cheap to you, like you weren’t working hard enough.

You threw on your jacket, and headed down to the centre’s front doors to wait for Levi’s chauffeur. You weren’t entirely sure what sort of vehicle you were waiting for, but figured you’d know when you saw it.

Surely enough, a rather luxurious black maserati drove up to the door, and stopped in front of you. Though instead of the driver getting out, the passenger’s side door opened, and Levi stepped out of the vehicle. He looked up and stared at you, but you knew well enough at this point that that was pretty much the equivalent to him smiling and saying hello.

“Good evening Mr. Ackerman,” You said, as you approached the vehicle. Levi walked over to the back door, and opened it for you. You smirked at him slightly, his chivalrous behaviour being somewhat out of character for him.

“You’re not working, cut it out with the Ackerman bullshit y/n, it’s just Levi.”

“Alright, ‘just Levi’” you teased him. He shut the door - somewhat forcefully, might I add - and walked around to the other side of the vehicle. You weren’t entirely sure what he was doing, until he opened the door beside you and sat down in the back beside you.

“You’re not riding shotgun?” you teased again. He rolled his eyes at you, and signaled to the driver to start driving with a little head nod. 

You both sat in silence as the chauffeur drove you back to the recording studio. There was classical music playing from the radio, and it sounded like Chopin. You figured it must be the pieces he was working on, and didn’t want to talk over it in case he was studying parts of the song. 

Levi’s hand was rested under his chin, and he was staring out the window watching all the buildings pass by. Every now and then, there’d be an opening where the buildings weren’t tall enough to block the sun, which was slowly setting, and the warm sunlight would strike his face. 

_He looks sort of pretty with the golden hour lighting right now_ you thought to yourself. His complexion looked less pallid than it normally did, his face actually had some warmth to it.

The car slowly came to a stop, and Levi got out of the car, walking over to your side of the vehicle to open the door for you again, though this time he was standing on the inside of the car door.

“Thank you,” you said as you got out of the car. Levi leaned in, placing his hand on the top of the door frame so you didn’t bump your head on the roof of the car while stepping out.

When you stood up to exit the car, you realized you were uncomfortably close to Levi’s face. He must not have realized how close you were going to be as well, because he seemed a bit taken aback, and quickly moved out of the way. 

“F-Follow me” he muttered, before walking into the building. For someone who wasn’t very tall, it was impressive how quickly he managed to walk. Levi was pretty far ahead of you, but you still managed to trail along behind him. You walked into the main recording room, and looked around at the space. It was a large room that was entirely empty aside from the grand piano in the center of it. The ceilings were incredibly high. It must’ve been a very old building, as the floor boards had a unique pattern to them that gave the room a very antique feeling, same with the moulding along the walls. Levi sat down and the piano, and played a few random chords, to warm up slightly. 

He looked up at you, and gestured over to a door on the left side of the room. There was a big window, and you could see Erwin and Hange behind it chatting about something.

“Recording booth. It’s best you hang out there while I play so you don’t fuck up the recording by making unnecessary noise.”

You just nodded, and walked over to where the door was. Both Hange and Erwin looked quite pleased to see you- and almost slightly relieved? Erwin looked like he’d been holding his breath and finally started breathing again once you walked in.

“Good evening you two,” you said, greeting them. Erwin was leaning up against the back wall, and Hange was sitting in front of a control panel with lots of different switches and buttons, presumably to control the audio and sound quality of Levi’s performance.

“Good evening to you as well, y/n. Have a seat alongside Hange if you’d like.” Erwin gestured to the empty seat beside Hange, and you took him up on the offer, sitting down beside Hange.

“Hange, am I good to start again?” Levi asked. Despite him being in the next room over, you could hear him quite well. You figured it must be part of how the recording studio was set up. Hange leaned towards a little microphone and held a button beside it, saying “we’re ready whenever you are Levi,”

You watched Levi take a deep breath, before he started playing.

_**Link to Song: https://youtu.be/r_KmbW-C8Mc?t=151** _

Unlike the few times you’d heard him perform, this piece had a sense of playfulness to it, its music could sound teasing and sarcastic, this section in through here did. It had moments where you were able to catch a glimpse of Levi’s standard aggressive and anger filled passion, but for the most part it was very light and soft. Levi had a similar expression on his face to when he played for you back at his apartment, he seemed quite relaxed. You could only imagine how stressful performances in front of huge crowds must be, the change in atmosphere must allow him to relax slightly knowing that it’s not fatal if he slips up and makes a mistake. (Not that he did-his playing was absolutely flawless).

Levi finished playing, the last chord resonating around the room. He glanced up at the window, and glanced at you for a moment.

“What’s your gamep lan, Levi?” Hange asked him.

“Again.” was all he said.

“Alright. Whenever you’re ready then.”

And Levi started again, playing the piece from the top. 

You felt Erwin place a hand on your shoulder gently, and he leaned down so that you could hear him whisper.

“Sorry to drag you here, y/n. This process is going to go on for a while, but he’s already playing better before than he was just an hour ago.” Erwin explained.

You thought about what Erwin had just said, but something wasn’t really clicking for you.

“You mean he doesn't normally sound like this?”

“Not at all. You should’ve seen him this morning, he’d make a mistake a few bars into a piece and restart. I think we’ve gotten one acceptable recording of the piece all day. We both owe you one y/n.”

“No offense Erwin, but what do I have to do with anything? I’m not really helping.”

“Hmm… I suppose. Though I doubt it’s a mere coincidence Levi’s improved substantially since you arrived.” He squeezed your shoulder slightly, and gave you a playful smile before walking back over to where he’d been standing before.

…

Levi recorded that piece a few more times, and moved on to Chopin’s other ballades once he was satisfied with his performance. It took a few hours, but eventually he decided to call it an evening. 

He walked into the recording booth, and Erwin tossed him a towel which he used to wipe off his hands, and pat his face dry slightly. You forgot how exhausting hours of playing piano at a time must be, especially given the way Levi liked to play everything with a certain level of aggression and loudness.

“About time you call it a night, Levi.” Hange said, getting up out of their chair and walking over to Levi. They placed their hand on Levi’s head, and pulled his face towards theirs. “You’re gonna work yourself to death some day.” They added.

Levi flicked Hange in the forehead, and ducked out of their grasp. Hange just chuckled and Levi’s little forehead flick.

You decided this time instead of talking to Levi first, you’d just wait around and see how long it’d take for him to talk to you. Considering he dragged you here, you decided it was going to be up to him to make conversation for once. You could slowly feel yourself getting more and more irritated with Levi's inability to actually hold a conversation with you.

He stumbled around the room, packing up a few odds and ends, keeping busy while Hange turned off all the equipment, and Erwin packed up his things too. Hange and Erwin left ahead of you two, Erwin giving you a little wave before leaving.

Levi looked like he was about to leave without even acknowledging you were there, until he finally turned to you with an annoyed look on his face.

“Are you just going to sit on your ass? Come on, let’s get going.” He said.

“I- what?” was all you could manage to spit out.

“You haven’t had dinner, right?”

“No, I came from work-”

“Then let’s go. I’m hungry.” Levi walked out of the room, only to shout “don’t forget to close the door behind you” and he walked back out to the main entrance.

Levi was decently far ahead of you, but you managed to run down the hall fast enough to grab his arm before he got outside the building, where you could see Hange and Erwin chatting. He turned to you, looking rater pissed off you’d grabbed him by the arm and stopped him.

“What the hell Levi?” You blurted out.

“Huh?” he said back, incredibly confused. He pulled his arm out on your grasp, and was strong enough he almost pulled you along with him.

“Don't play dumb with me. You seriously bring me here after I’m finished work, don’t say anything to me on the way there, ignore me once you’re done, only to tell me to follow you and that we’re getting dinner? Do we need to do a crash course in basic interpersonal skills or something? Like fuck Levi, I’ve hardly known you for a week and I’m already getting tired of your bullshit. I want to have a relationship with you, but you make it pretty damn hard-” you cut yourself off, realizing you were blurting things out without actually thinking about what you were saying. You were just saying whatever came to mind.

Levi’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting you to tear a strip off him and actually get angry at him. He stood there for a while, trying to process what the hell to say back to you in response. You decided to just change the subject, knowing Levi was probably too baffled to even find the words.

“We can finish this conversation another time. Are Hange and Erwin waiting for you? They seem to still be outside.” You pointed to them, and Levi turned his head to see they were still there.

“We agreed to get dinner together, yes. Let’s go, it’s cold and it would be rude to keep them waiting outside for us.” 

You two walked outside, and the car from earlier was parked alongside the curb.

Levi walked up to his chauffeur and said something, and the chauffeur simply nodded, and walked off. Levi walked over to the driver’s seat of the car, and got it. You figured he must’ve dismissed his chauffeur for the evening. 

Erwin and Hange sat in the back, giving you no choice but to sit in the passenger seat beside Levi.

“Why’d you send him off?” you asked him as you sat down.

“Just felt like driving.” He simply said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! It's my first time writing a story like this so seeing people give the story kudos means a lot :) I'm starting work soon so I won't be able to update as frequently but I'm still hoping for once a week. Thank you so much, and I hope you're enjoying the story so far :)


	6. I Fall in Love Too Easily

_Link to song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UITN2PvMTek_

The drive had a rather odd atmosphere to it. Hange was playing the recording of Levi’s playing on aux, and Levi would mention things he liked or disliked about how he played it, and Erwin seemed to be jotting it down on his phone. Vague comments like ‘A crescendo there would be good’ or ‘I should accent the left hand a bit more, it’s muddy.’ They seemed to have a phenomenal system between the three of them, their ability to work as a team was almost interesting to watch on it’s own.

“And you y/n? Do you have any commentary to add?” Erwin asked. You weren’t really expecting him to ask you about Levi’s performance. You saw Levi glance over when he asked you, clearly curious as to what you were going to say. You knew now Levi valued your opinion quite a lot, and you figured Levi had probably been wanting to ask it all night, but just couldn’t find the opportunity to.

“It was different compared to the style of playing I’m used to hearing. I know I’ve been exposed to only a glimpse of it, but Levi’s playing always crossed me as being angry and aggressive, like pounding on piano keys were some sort of stress relief.” You started. Erwin looked rather inquisitive, and you realized this was the first time you’d ever voiced your opinion to him. Normally it was just a one on one conversation between you and Levi. “Not that Levi sounds like some tyrant that just bangs piano keys for fun-” you quickly added on, realizing how bad the first phrase sounded. “-There’s always just this certain air of… aggression to his playing? It’s good, it’s comparable to Horowitz or Trifonov in a lot of ways. But I was rather surprised with this piece, it wasn’t like anything I’d heard him play before. It was… softer? A lot gentler, quite playful as well.”

“Huh? What the hell do you mean by that?” Levi croaked. 

“How do I put this… It reminded me of a fox chasing a rabbit, only instead of hunting, the fox is only trying to play, and the rabbit is in on it too, knowing the fox isn’t trying to hurt it. Your pieces paint stories, and that’s what came to mind when listening to you play. A fox and a rabbit, chasing each other around teasingly.”

Levi seemed to think over what you’d said, no longer looking offended. He had a look of genuine curiosity on his face, like he was trying to connect how you visualized his playing to the way he performed. Erwin seemed to be thinking it over too, and Hange was distracted by something else they were working on to really notice what you’d said. The car was silent for a while, and you started worrying you’d over-spoke.

“Do you generally visualize music like that y/n?” Erwin asked finally.

“I guess I do. I hadn’t given it much thought till just now. Must come from being an artist myself,” you said, smiling a bit. You hadn’t painted or drawn in ages, but there was a part of you that still identified with being an artist.

“You paint?” Levi asked.

“Used to. I’ve been so busy with work that I haven't had the chance to actually draw or paint anything.”

“That’s a shame. I’m sure you must be talented,” Erwin said.

“You might say differently if you saw my work, Erwin.” you said, chuckling slightly. “But thank you, that’s very kind of you.”

Levi pulled up alongside the curb of the road, and you figured you must’ve arrived at the restaurant. It was a fairly nice looking restaurant, and looked rather empty inside as well, it wasn’t very busy. The four of you headed in, and the host took you over to your seats where you sat down for the most last minute dinner plans you’d ever made in your life.

...

It was actually a lovely dinner you had with Erwin, Hange and Levi. You weren’t sure if Levi had picked the restaurant or if it had been agreed upon first, but either way whoever picked the restaurant did a phenomenal job. It was an expensive Italian restaurant, and while normally you weren’t one to go to expensive restaurants, this one was well worth the money you were about to spend on dinner. You, Erwin and Hange had been chatting away the whole evening, the three of you splitting a few bottles of wine while Levi stuck to just ordering black tea. Erwin said he wasn’t much of a drinker unless it was for a special occasion. Levi actually didn’t talk much the entire evening, aside from a few snide remarks here and there. The more you got to know him the more evident it was he wasn’t the biggest talker.

Erwin chatted mainly about work, and you actually got to learn a lot about his job and what he did. It turns out Levi wasn’t the only performing artist he was in charge of, he had a few other artists he managed, and that Levi was just ‘the strongest performer out of all of them’ so he dedicates a good chunk of his job to working with Levi. Levi seemed to smile a tad at Erwin’s comment.

The four of you sat at the table for a while, Erwin and Hange only getting more sociable the more they drank. Levi didn’t seem to mind that he wasn’t taking part in the drinking though, he just kept to himself the entire time.

“I’m going out for a smoke.” He said suddenly, and stood up and walked outside.  
“I wonder what’s got him in a mood.” Hange said, once Levi was out of earshot.

“He’s in a mood?” You asked. Hange chuckled a bit, and adjusted their glasses.

“You wouldn’t be able to tell. Erwin and I have known him for years, it’s easy to tell when he’s in a mood over something, even if he acts the same on the surface. Spend enough time around him, and you’ll start to pick up on it.” They explained.

“It’s like you develop a fifth sense,” Erwin added in, chuckling a bit.

A few minutes later, Levi walked back over to your table, and grabbed his coat which was resting on the back of the chair.

“The bill is taken care of. We can go.” Levi said, swinging his coat on. You nearly choked on your drink, not expecting Levi to have covered your portion of the meal.

“Levi, I could’ve payed my own bill-”

“I know you could’ve, but I wanted to pay for it. Tsk, stop saying shit to piss me off.” He walked out of the restaurant, not bothering to wait for the three of you. Hange snuck up behind you and placed their hand on your shoulder.

“Don’t take it personally y/n.” They advised you. 

_Link to song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UITN2PvMTek_

The three of you walked out to Levi’s car, and you sat in the passenger seat again. Hange and Erwin sat chatting amongst each other in the back, while you and Levi sat in silence beside each other. There was music playing, as per usual, though instead of classical music it was a soft jazz solo. You thought about what Hange had said, and slowly started piecing it together, about recognizing when he was in a bad mood even if he wasn’t letting on that he was in one. His body seemed tenser than usual, he didn’t look relaxed in the slightest. 

He pulled up in front of a hotel, and Erwin and Hange stepped out. Erwin popped his head back into the car momentarily, and thanked Levi for driving.

“Where do you live.” Levi asked, as he started driving again.

“Oh- I live in the opposite direction of where you live, you can just drop me off somewhere and I can take a cab or something-”

“Stop being ridiculous. I’ll drive you home.”

“You’re so stubborn, you know that? I live on the western side of the city, I can give you directions once we get closer.”

“Alright.”

There was a while you two sat in silence, with only the faint sound of jazz music playing in the back. 

“Levi, about what I said earlier-”

“You’re right.” He blurted out, interrupting you again. 

“About what?” You asked.

“What you said about me earlier. I’m sorry that I’ve been pretty much giving you orders all evening, dragging you around with me so much. It was inconsiderate.” He said. He wouldn’t look at you, his eyes were focused on the road. Perhaps it was easier to say these sorts of things when he had an excuse to not look you in the eyes while he said it.

“It’s actually been a nice evening Levi, aside from your shit attitude which dampened it slightly,” you said quietly, not really wanting to admit that you’d enjoyed Levi’s last minute thrown together excuse of an outing.

“I don’t have a shitty attitude-”

“Oh, don't fuck with me Levi, you’ve been in a mood all evening, even I can tell.” You interrupted him, chuckling a bit over his stubbornness. Hearing you chuckle made him smirk a bit, knowing he’d somehow managed to make you laugh slightly.

“Don’t yell at me next time, and maybe I won’t be in a bad mood.” he said, continuing to smirk.

“Aww, do you dislike when I chew you out a bit?” You teased.

“No, quite the opposite in fact,” You were approaching an intersection, and the light changed from amber to red, and Levi slowed to a stop. Levi turned to you, a strange expression on his face. He learned in rather close to you, staring right at you. “By all means, tease me as much as you’d like.” He whispered.

Levi stayed still, his eyes clearly focusing on your lips. You weren’t entirely sure what to do next, not quite sure how to react to Levi’s sudden mood change. The light changed back to green, and Levi quickly pulled away, and continued driving.

“It’s a right turn up here,” You mumbled quietly, still not sure what to say in response to Levi. You looked over at him, with a clear smirk across his face. He seemed rather pleased that he was able to make you blush slightly.

You finally arrived outside your apartment, but you found yourself hesitant to get out of the car. You sat in the passenger seat for a while, almost hoping Levi would say something. In fact, you almost expected him to question why you weren’t getting out of his car, with his typical blunt tone of voice. But he didn’t. 

“Would you… like to come up for a while?” You asked? You turned to face Levi, who was already staring at you.

“I’d like that,” He said, turning off the vehicle and putting it in park.

You both got out, and went into your apartment building. It was fairly early for a Friday evening, it was maybe around 9pm at best. You both walked into an empty elevator, and you pushed the button for your floor.

“Top floor, huh?” Levi pointed out.

“I enjoy being high up, it’s a truly magnificent view.”

“I’m sure it is.” He said, though you got the sense he wasn’t talking about the view from your apartment.

You opened the door to your apartment, but when you turned the doorknob you noticed there was a sharp pain in your wrist, and you winced slightly.

“What’s wrong?” Levi asked, noticing your expression.

“It’s nothing,” you reassured him, turning the doorknob and walking into your apartment. 

Levi grabbed your wrist, tugging you back towards him. He grabbed the one that you’d hurt somehow, making you wince even louder.

“Bullshit, what did you do?” He asked. While he sounded angry, there was an underlying sense of concern in his voice.

“It’s alright Levi, it’s not a big deal-”

“I didn’t hurt you back at the recording studio, did I?” He blurted out. You realized it was the same arm you’d grabbed him with, and that he must’ve thought he’d done something from pulling his arm away so quickly when you grabbed onto him back at the recording studio.

“It’s just a bad wrist Levi, it wasn’t you,” You tried to reassure him. You walked to where the kitchen was, and grabbed yourself a glass. Levi followed you in, and sat down on of the barstools along the kitchen counter.

“Can I get you anything?” You offered him.

“No I’m alright. Why is it a bad wrist?” He asked. You ignored his question, and pulled out a mug.

“What type of tea do you prefer?” Levi didn’t answer, and you turned to see him looking a bit confused.

“Surprise me. What happened to your wrist?” He asked again. You sighed, figuring he wouldn’t let the question go until you answered him. He seemed to be oddly fixated on your injury. You figured he was probably slightly worried he’d managed to hurt your wrist slightly, and that just putting it off wasn’t going to do anything.

“I used to paint, and quite a lot actually. I loved it, but I overworked myself and ended up damaging some tendons in my wrist from repeated strain. I had to stop painting and drawing, or at least not do it as often. Sometimes I’ll do something that bothers it, but it’s not a big deal, I’m used to it.”

Levi had an odd look on his face, and you couldn’t quite decipher the look on his face before he extended his hand towards you.

“Give me your hand.”

“What?”

“Just give me your hand.”

You placed your hand onto Levi's right hand, and he held it gently. Taking the thumb on his left hand, he pressed from the centre of your hand down to your wrist, and you could feel some tension in your wrist starting to alleviate. He seemed to be a natural at it.

“I used to do the same thing as a kid. I’d overwork my wrists, and I gave myself tendonitis a few times from overexertion. This should help your wrist not hurt as much.” He did it a few more times, each time he'd run his thumb down your hand, the pain in your wrist would feel a bit better.

He stopped, but didn’t instantly let go of your hand, holding it for just slightly longer than necessary. You pulled away, and walked over to the kettle which had finished boiling to make Levi something to drink.

“Have you been playing since you were a kid?” You asked, your back turned to him as you brewed his tea.

“Yeah, I taught myself when I was just about 3 or 4.”

“You taught yourself? Like you didn’t get lessons or anything?” You said, as you passed him the cup. He took it out of your hands and sipped it, looking quite satisfied with the tea you’d made.

“Couldn’t afford it at the time. There was a church close to where I stayed that was almost always vacant, and it had an organ inside it. The priest was kind enough to let me play, and I slowly taught myself how to play. It wasn’t until I stumbled across a piano in the street and played it, I realized I could make some money.” He paused for a moment, but you didn’t interrupt him. You were curious to hear more about him, to keep talking about his life. You wanted to know more about him, and figured he probably wasn’t one to open up to people about things. The fact that he was even telling you this much was rather impressive.

“People would toss me their loose change when they walked by me playing in the streets. Sure it was only a few cents, but as a kid growing up in the slums of Paris, a few cents made me feel like a millionaire.” He took another sip of tea, and seemed to mull over it for a while, staring into the cup. You figured that was the most he was going to tell you, which was fair. It wasn’t like you’d know him that long.

“Sorry, I was rambling over unimportant things. It’s a lovely cup of tea, thank you.” he said, still fixated on the cup. You could tell that even just that brief mention of his childhood was wearing on his, clearly the past wasn't something he was fond of talking about.

“Levi,” You said, trying to get his attention. He raised his head, and you noted that he had a rather unusual look on his face. For once, he was easy to read.

“It’s not unimportant. I enjoy hearing about your life, you know. Thank you for trusting me with it.” You said softly, trying to reassure him slightly. For someone who had such a rough exterior to him, it was easy to tell how scared he was to be even slightly vulnerable around anyone. 

“Do you still paint?” Levi asked.

“From time to time, but I’m more focused on work now, I don’t really have the time to paint.” You explained. 

“I see,” he said, a more typical response of him. “Do you have any of your paintings here?” He blurted out. 

“Uhh. Yeah a few. The apartment has two bedrooms, so one is a makeshift office and storage space with a few of my pieces. I take it you want to see them?”

“If you don’t mind,”

“Normally I’d say I do mind, as a matter of fact, but it’s only fair isn't it,” you said, sighing a bit. “Now you get to learn a thing or two about me.” 

You walked over to where the door to the office was, and Levi followed rather close behind you, eager to see some of your paintings. You led him into the office, where you had a few paintings sitting on the floor, others placed neatly on shelves. You walked over to the desk, and leaned up against it while Levi looked at the paintings.

“They’re good,” he said quietly, as he scanned over the room. Only Levi could make such a bland and mediocre compliment feel so genuine. You could feel your face flushing a bit, watching him look over your artwork.

“I like this one the most,” he said after a while, pointing to one that was sitting on the floor. It was a landscape painting of a grey and cloudy beach, with lots of overgrown grass and plants. There was a little path through the grass, and an old fence that you’d painted in as well. You walked over to where he was standing, and you stood quite close behind him.

“I painted that in college, when I was studying art. It was part of a final project actually, I had a crazy long thesis on it too.” You explained.

“What was the thesis on?” He asked, still focused on the painting.

“I looked into the fluidity of art forms, and how they impact one another." You explained. "I based this off of a Rachmaninoff piece actually. I based other paintings on famous poems, or stories. Not painting aspects of the plot, but more just trying to paint things that would evict the same emotion or meaning as the original texts. Does that make sense?” 

Levi just simply responded with a ‘mhm’, nothing more.

“Maybe that’s how I’m able to so brutally pick apart your music,” you chuckled. “I had to write a whole thesis comparing the emotions music evoked in me and how I related them back to the paintings I’d done.”

“Maybe,” Levi chuckled along with you, and turned around to face you. Maybe he didn’t realize how close he was standing behind you, but when he turned around, you were uncomfortably close to him, just a few inches away from practically being pressed up against him. You felt yourself moving closer towards him, to the point you could almost feel his breath against your skin. Your heart was beating so loudly you almost started to worry he might be able to hear it.

There was a long pause before either of you said anything, and the sound of your heartbeat was growing louder and faster in your ears. 

_What am I so nervous for,_ you thought to yourself. 

Levi exhaled, as if he'd been holding his breath for quite a while, nervous about something. 

“I should probably get going now, huh,” He whispered. You looked up at his eyes, and noticed he was staring directly at your lips again.

“Probably, yeah.” you whispered back, pulling away from him. You exhaled, only now realizing you’d been holding your breath as well.

You walked Levi over to the door, leaning up against the doorway as he stood in the hallway. He still seemed a bit hesitant to leave, but you knew it was for the better. If he stayed any longer… who knows what would happen. 

“Thank you… for the tea. It was lovely.” He said awkwardly. 

“Not a problem. Thank you for the ride home, as well as dinner. I’ll pay for the both of us next time,” You added. It seemed like the time between each of you speaking only grew longer and longer, both of you trying to find something else to say besides ‘goodbye’.

“So there’ll be… a next time?” he asked reluctantly. You could tell by his voice, he was almost nervous asking, as if he was worried he’d read into something too much.

“If you can fit it into your schedule, next time would be nice,” you said, your voice was soft and gentle. You smiled at him, and he gave you a half smile back, which for Levi was a pretty big deal. “Goodnight, Levi,” you said finally.

“Goodnight to you as well, y/n,” he said. You shut the door, and waited until you heard the elevator open and close, before sinking to the ground and burying your head between your knees.

 _What the hell are you doing y/n,_ you thought to yourself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hate to admit this, but my first draft of this chapter had a WAY spicier ending, but then I decided to draw it out a bit more and make everyone wait patiently to so much as hold hands with Levi ;) I promise though, you will definitely get around to sleeping with him, I didn't mark this story as being explicit for no reason. 
> 
> I also hope you're enjoying slowly getting bits and pieces of Levi's backstory. It's pretty much adapted from his actual AOT backstory to fit the universe I've written him in, but idk maybe it's just me, but I absolutely love stories that give Levi depth instead of just being some cold, blunt hard ass all the time. A lot of the 'random' things he does throughout the story all have a reason behind them, mainly pertaining to his childhood that I'll slowly keep mentioning throughout the story.
> 
> If you're enjoying the story or have any feedback I would really appreciate comments :) Thank you for reading this!!


	7. Again

It seemed to rain almost every day. The noise of the busy car filled streets and crowds of chattering people walking to work always seemed to be drowned out by the sound of the rain in the morning. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d woken up to even see a blue sky, the windows were always fogged over along the corners slightly from the cold and the sky was a familiar colour of grey. 

It was Sunday morning, a morning you generally looked forward to. Sunday mornings were always so calm and peaceful, a deserving break from your work-addicted, busy body self. You slumped around in bed for a while, enjoying the comfort of the thick layers of blanket before rolling your way out of bed, and heading over to make yourself some coffee. (Yet there was a part of you that was tempted to put on a pot of tea instead.) You turned on the radio, and flipped through stations until you came across a classical station. Despite being more of a jazz person, you decided to keep in on, letting Debussy’s Claire de Lune fill your apartment. There was something comforting about the performance, whoever the performance artist was, they were doing a beautiful job. The piece finished, and the radio host slowly faded in.

“What a stunning performance this morning Mr. Ackerman, it’s wonderful to have you hear today,”

“It’s wonderful to be here,” a familiar voice replied back.

At this point, Levi popping up in the randomest places shouldn’t even surprise me, you thought to yourself as you stirred cream into your coffee.

“Mr. Ackerman, it’s to my understanding you’ve been staying here in Germany for the past few weeks, is that correct?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And how’ve you been enjoying your stay here so far?”

“It’s been nice.”

Could his answers be any more straight forward, you thought, chuckling a bit.

“What’ve you enjoyed the most so far, while staying here in Germany?”

Levi was silent for a bit, perhaps not expecting the question and needing to think over a response.

“Truly tremendous art galleries, I must say. I sometimes have to fight the urge to go visit them multiple times a day, the galleries here are lovely.” 

You could feel your face getting hot slightly over Levi picking art galleries out of everything he could’ve picked from to enjoy the most.

“How wonderful, there are some very prestigious art galleries here. And considering you’re an art person, do you happen to have a favourite artist in mind Mr Ackerman? One could only imagine that your taste in art would be as good as your taste in music.”

Levi paused for a moment once again, thinking over his response. Erwin clearly hadn’t prepared him for everything.

“I have a favourite artist, yes, though their art isn’t one you’d find in galleries. But a close runner up would be Goya.” 

That bastard, you thought. You could practically picture the sly smirk that must be plastered over his face right now. It’s like he knows I’m listening to him.

“Goya? His paintings are rather gruesome, are they not?” the radio host chuckled a bit under his breath, trying to make light of Levi’s response. 

In the host’s defense, Levi has quite a fondness of the painting of ‘Saturn Devouring his Son’, definitely not a relaxing sight by any means

His voice changed slightly in his response, it was almost smooth, pretty to listen to. 

“But the painter you first mentioned, are they someone you know personally?”

“You could say that, yes.”

…

A few days had passed, and you hadn’t heard from Levi in a while. Not that it was unexpected though, he was busy with work as per usual, and you were as well. You’d been contacting lots of galleries in hopes of finding new exhibitions to put up once the Rembrandt exhibit was done, and you were wrapping up your partnership with Jean, the ammature painter who’d put his art up in your gallery for a while. It had gone over well, which was both nice for you and for Jean. He even asked if you were hiring staff at all, just to work part time and have more experience in the art scene, but you had to tell him that unfortunately you weren’t.

You noted that you still hadn’t RVSPed to the charity benefit that was coming up in two weeks. You needed to make a decision by the end of the day, but were going to decline anyways. Work was far too important to go on a trip.

Heading out for your lunch break, you decided to go out to your favourite cafe. Hitch wasn’t working today, so you didn’t feel guilty about passing by her cafe in the gallery to go to another. 

It was a refreshing change to see sunlight considering how much rain there’d been recently. It was still cold out considering it was only March, but the snow had been melted now for a while, and pretty soon plants would start to bud. The cafe wasn’t too far from the gallery and it was a nice walk to it as well.

Funny, I think the last time I was here, I was treating Levi to lunch.

Speak of the fucking devil.

As you walked up to the cafe door, Levi and Hange were leaving, Levi carrying a tray of drinks while Hange seemed to be carrying pasties. Hange spotted you and recognized you quickly, them having an exceptional memory.

“Hey! y/n! It seems we keep running into you everywhere we go, doesn’t it Levi,” they poked him slightly, Levi not even paying attention to Hange’s obvious teasing. Instead he was looking at you, a tender half-smile across his face.

He’s looking at me the way he looks at the paintings in my gallery, you thought to yourself. 

“On your lunch break?” He asked, his voice also soft. Hange looked a bit puzzled at the change in his demeanor when talking to you,

“Yeah, I needed to get out of the office for a bit so I decided to come here for lunch instead.”

“You work too hard.”

“Says the literal workaholic,” you joked. “How’s recording going?”

“Good, we’re just about done too, then I still have another two weeks or so in Germany before I head home to France.”

You felt your shoulders sink a bit at the words ‘go home’, that Levi was going to have to leave.

Why am I disappointed anyways? I’ve known him for all of a few weeks.

“How much longer is your break?” Levi asked, changing the subject slightly. You pulled out your phone to check the time, not actually aware of what time it was.

“About… 20 minutes left?”

Levi turned to Hange, taking out one of the drinks from the tray he was holding and passed it to Hange. 

“Go ahead. I’ll see you in 20 minutes.” He told them, Hange taking the tray of drinks from him with a slight smirk.

“I’ll let Erwin know you’ll be late,” was all they said in response.

“I never said you could join me for my lunch. I do value my alone time you know Levi,” You teased slightly. 

“I can just leave them-”

“Shut up and get going,” you said, pushing by him and going inside the cafe. You could practically feel the fact that he was smirking, knowing he’d managed to piss you off once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBqaRlDcmbw

You ordered a flat white and a club sandwich for yourself, while Levi sat down at one of the window seats and waited for you, as he already had his drink from earlier. You glanced over while waiting for your drink to finish, and watched as he looked out the window, his head resting in the palm of his hand lightly. The few moments where you’d see Levi looking peaceful were always moments you valued. Sometimes you wondered how often even Erwin or Hange saw these few moments of peace for him.

“What’re you looking at?” you asked him as you sat down. You joined him in looking out the window to humour him slightly.

‘There’s a tree starting to bloom,” he pointed out, nodding his head in the direction of the tree he was looking at. There was an elm tree off in the distance, and you could see small green buds dotting the ends of all the branches.

“Seems a bit early for the trees to be budding already,” he said.

“It’s still pretty though, spring is starting now too.”

“It’s a shame almost, I quite like winter.” 

You turned to look at him, only to find him no longer looking out the window at the trees, and instead staring at you.

“Why am I not surprised that you like winter,” you chuckled lightly under your breath “considering how your taste in classical music is harsh and abrasive, it makes sense that you’d like winter as well.”

“Do you think I’m harsh?” 

He didn’t sound offended however at the thought of being called harsh, he more seemed to enjoy it, as if he hoped you’d say yes.

“I do.”

“And yet you still go out with me?”

“Who said we were going out?” you said, cutting him off slightly. You watched a look of embarrassment flash across his face for just a moment before he gained his composure. Clearly Levi’s dignity was a hard thing to shatter. “And I never said it was a bad thing. I happen to quite like cold winters.”

You sat in silence together for a few minutes, but again, one of those comfortable silenced where you don’t feel the need to talk to fill the air. You noticed Levi fiddling with something in his pocket, which caught your attention. 

“What is it?” you asked, catching him off guard. He must’ve been deep in thought about something, as when his head shot up, he looked very conflicted for a moment. 

“It’s nothing,” he quickly said, his voice a bit quieter than usual.

“Alright.” you simply stated back, sipping your coffee. You watched him play with his fingers a bit longer, clearly it wasn’t nothing.

“Dear God Levi, what-”

“Come to France with me” He blurted out. Clearly realizing how confusing that question was, you could watch him mentally back track, trying to rearrange his thoughts.

A simple “what” was all you could manage to say at the question. It was worded more like a demand, but you knew at this point it was Levi’s idiotic was of phrasing questions.

“For a few days, nothing long. I have a charity benefit that I’m performing at, and they gave me a guest ticket. It’s free, and completely accommodated on behalf of the gallery as well.” He began to explain. “Only having an extra ticket, I’d have a hard time picking between Erwin and Hange. Plus, I’ve had to pick between Erwin and someone else a few times and it never ends up well.”

Out of everything you could’ve expected him to be saying, this was not one of them.

“This is going to be an odd follow up question, but by chance is it being held at Musée d’Orsay a few weeks from now?”

Levi seemed to be very focused on listening to your response, and could only muster a ‘mhm’ in response to your question.

“I got an invitation to it, and haven't RVSPed yet. But I wasn’t really planning to go-”

“Why not?”

“Work. I’m busy-”

“Don’t you have other employees who could fill in for you?”

“Well yes, but-”

“Then I don’t see the issue-”

“Would you let me finish a goddamn sentence?” you finally said, interrupting him. “Besides, if you’re just trying to drag me along so I can ‘analyze’ your playing or whatever, just have someone record it to me, and I’ll listen to it afterwards.”

You watched as Levi’s shoulders dropped at what you said. You almost felt bad watching him get upset over something.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get worked up or anything, you just kept interrupting me-”

“No it’s not that. I don’t want you there to just listen to me play or whatever.” Levi looked up at you, staring straight into your eyes.

“I wanted you there as my actual plus one.” He said softly, as if he was scared to say the sentence any louder.

“Oh” was all you could say in response.

“It’s not for another two weeks. So think it over. If you have work, then that’s fine, but when was the last time you even took a day off? You could probably use it.” Levi checked his watch, and stood up out of his seat.

“I've been pushing it with how late I am to get back to work, so I’ll excuse myself.” He walked over to you, placing a hand on your shoulder and leaning down slightly as you sat in the chair still.

“You still owe me that ‘next time’, by the way.” he whispered. You could feel his breath along your neck. 

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said with a smirk, before leaving the café.

You almost were late to get back to work, you were sitting there for so long just thinking everything over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about the delay on this chapter, I know it's been a few months since I updated it. I've just been going through a wicked depressive episode, so all of my energy goes to going to work and just keeping myself functioning. I hope you can all understand!
> 
> I also want to apologize for how short this chapter was compared to how long my chapters usually are. It just felt like a good place to end it, and I was worried that if I tried to make it any longer I'd just give up on it again, so I left it as is. I'll try to make up for it in the next few chapters, both with making them a bit longer and making them more interesting, this chapter was a bit boring I'll admit, but necessary.
> 
> Thank you to Alex for leaving a comment on the last chapter as well! It's literally thanks to them that this chapter is even being written in the first place, as it's really motivating to see people interacting with my work. So thank you!!


	8. Christmas Side Story :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry if you were hoping this would be the next chapter, it isn't :( But! It's a short little Christmas one-shot as my way of saying Merry Christmas, or happy holidays in general if you don't celebrate Christmas. It's totally optional, you don't need to read it, and I'll have the next chapter out soon for everyone as well, I promise. Once again, tryna make up for the two month hiatus and the super short last chapter. Considering this story is more of a slower paced one, I figured why not treat everyone with a bit of wholesome, 'we've been together for years now and are engaged' Levi x reader content.
> 
> Merry Christmas everyone, I look forward to posting the next actual chapter soon!

“Could you get the door? I think it’s Hange and Erwin.” Levi shouted at you from the kitchen. He surprisingly was a phenomenal cook, and insisted on preparing food for your small get together.

You opened the door to see both Hange and Erwin, both with huge grins on their faces.

“Sorry we’re so late y/n, Erwin insisted on stopping by the liquor store to buy wine but took _forever_ trying to pick a bottle!” Hange explained. Erwin handed you the bottle, looking a tad bit embarrassed that Hange had just called him out, but you took it graciously nonetheless - plus it was a really lovely merlot he’d picked out.

Hange walked by you heading straight for the kitchen, and you could only assume they must’ve hugged Levi based on what incomprehensible noises followed.

“Hange, fuck, we’ve talked- would you GET OFF ME! What are you, a dog begging to be pet? Go away while I finish cooking,” He snapped at them. You and Erwin exchanged a knowing look and chuckled a bit at Levi’s distaste for intimacy. 

“Do you want to have a glass of this now? Or wait a bit?” You asked Erwin, holding up the wine he’d bought.

“Aah, why not open it now and have a bit?” Erwin said. You walked into the kitchen, poking at Levi a bit just to piss him off even more before grabbing a few wine glasses for you guys.

“Hitch is running late- again- but said not to wait up for her and Marlo,” You mentioned to Levi, who gave a satisfied nod and continued about cooking. It wasn’t much he was putting together, a small pot roast, but it was still lovely to have him home and cooking. With work, you’d noticed Levi had been fairly busy and hadn’t been home quite as often, but you understood. 

Erwin and Hange had made themselves comfortable in the living room, chatting about god knows what. You finished pouring three glasses, and asked if Levi wanted a glass, which he politely declined. He wasn’t one for drinking anyways, so you instead pulled out the electric kettle and started boiling water for him- to make him some tea obviously.

You rifled through the cabinet, browsing the section of tea he’d amassed over the years.

“Does Earl Grey work for you? Or would you rather something more festive?” You asked, still rifling through the cabinet. You waited for a response, but never got one. 

“Levi?” You asked, thinking he hadn’t heard you. You turned to look at him, only to see him looking at you with the most tender look on his face you’d ever seen. He reached his arm out, grabbing you by the waist and pulling you into a hug. 

“Has anyone ever told you you’re too considerate? I never even asked, and yet here you are making me tea.” He said, swaying slightly with you in his arms. You looked up at him and chuckled a bit, and he planted a soft kiss on your forehead. “Earl Grey works fine. Anything works fine when you pick it for me,” He said, unwrapping his arms and letting you go.

You passed out Erwin and Hange’s wine, and finished steeping Levi’s tea for him. It’d taken you a while, but you eventually learned how to perfectly make tea for him. Bone china cup, steep for four minutes (when it was black tea, at least), the tiniest splash of milk, and stirred back and forth instead of in a circular motion. He’d never told you outright how to make it, you’d just watched him over the years and picked up on how he likes his tea made.

“How much longer on the roast would you say?” You asked him.

“Hmmm..” He looked over everything, trying to mentally calculate a time estimate for you. “Another five minutes, maybe? I’m just waiting on the dinner rolls and wrapping up the gravy.”

“And you’re positive I can’t do anything?” You asked again.

Levi sighed, and reached out to grab your hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb.

“Just your company is enough.” You rolled your eyes at his sappiness, and went to join Erwin and Hange in the living room.

“Aaah, y/n, come sit!” Hange said, patting the seat beside them. You sat down, joining Hange and Erwin’s conversation for a while.

After a few minutes, Levi poked his head around the corner, with a very satisfied look on his face.

“Dinner’s ready.”

…

Levi’s cooking was excellent, as usual The beef was a perfect medium rare, the potatoes were crisp and buttery, the dinner rolls he’d baked turned out wonderfully as well. It shouldn’t even impress you that Levi was pretty exceptional at everything he did.

“How does it taste?” He asked, genuinely worried that it might not be good.

“It’s wonderful as always Levi,” Erwin reassured him.

“Well,” Hange said, holding up their wine glass, “Cheers everyone,”

“No toast, Erwin?” Levi teased. Erwin sighed, and stood up. Hange was visibly trying to contain their laughter over Erwin.

“It’s been an astronomical year for the four of us. Between Levi’s successful album, to y/n’s new gallery, and the fact that we even have a marriage coming in the new year. I am humbled to be spending the holidays with some of the most genuinely kind, caring and dedicated people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. It’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet people like you, and I’m thankful for each and every one of you.” Erwin started.

“Yeah still not dramatic enough Smith, I’m not really feeling the emotions with this once.” Hange complained, sipping their wine.

“Why’re you drinking your wine! We all take a sip _after_ the toast, how did you forget?” Erwin said, interrupting the flow of his little monologue.

“I got thirsty?” Hange explained. Erwin sighed, sitting back down, taking a lengthy sip from his wine.

“I think Hange’s the cause of your drinking problem Erwin,” Levi joked.

“I don’t have a drinking problem, Levi. But if I did… Hange would definitely be the cause of it.” he said, joining in on Levi’s joke.

…

The evening was slowly wrapping up, Hitch and Marlo showed up about an hour after dinner ended, brutally late once again (Marlo apologized profusely and kept insisting it was Hitch’s fault). 

Levi also played some Christmas songs for everyone, while the five of you sat and talked about all sorts of things, from work to art history to politics, you all chatted for hours together. Every now and then Levi would stop playing and join in on the conversation as well if it got heated enough. Hitch and Erwin were an oddly funny match to watch argue and debate things, Hitch being overly energetic and sarcastic, while Erwin was more calm and stoic. 

“Gosh, what time is it now? I really think Marlo and I should head out, we’re going to visit his parents tomorrow for Christmas day as well so we need to be up early,” Hitch explained.

“On second thought, maybe we should consider going as well Hange? It is getting late after all,” Erwin proposed.

“All my guests are leaving at once!” You jokingly complained, as you saw Marlo and Hitch out. Hitch reminded you to call her some time as it had been a while since you two had last seen each other. (She also insisted you have a bachelorette party, which you declined for the 5th time).

Erwin and Hange tossed on their coats, also getting ready to leave right behind Hitch and Marlo.

“Ah, I completely forgot!” Hange said suddenly, digging through their bag. Hange pulled out a small box wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, and handed it to you.

“And where’s my present, Hange?” Levi piped in.

“I don’t like you enough to get you a present this year,” Hange said rolling their eyes. Hange slipped out, waving goodbye. 

“They already tossed something under the tree for you Levi, don’t be so grumpy,” Erwin teased. “They probably just forgot to also put both presents under the tea. Hange sometimes functions on half of a brain cell, you know what they can be like,” He joked. 

“Merry christmas you two. It’s your first and last Christmas together as fiancé and fiancée, enjoy it,” Erwin said with a warm smile, heading out and shutting the door behind him.

“Do you just want to open present’s now?” Levi asked.

“Levi! That’s a tomorrow morning thing. They can wait another 12 hours!” you said, pretending to be offended.

“Mmh, you’re right. After all, I have way better things to do,” He said with a smirk, before grabbing you and pulling you in for a kiss. 

“I don’t remember seeing a mistletoe anywhere?” You said with a smirk, pulling away slightly.

“Don’t need one,” Levi said, pulling you back in for a second kiss, only this time it was far deeper. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pressing yourself up against his body, and Levi followed suit wrapping his arms around your waist.

You two slowly drifted from the hallway to the kitchen, Levi’s hands busy roaming your body, slipping under clothes, his kisses growing messier and messier by the second. When you finally reached the counter, Levi lifted you up, sitting you on the counter. You wrapped your legs around his waist as you continued to make out.

Levi slowly planted kisses down your neck, and you ran your hands through his hair as he did it. You let out a deep breath, and Levi looked up at you momentarily with a smirk plastered across his face.  
“We really shouldn’t do this on the counter,” you said, interrupting him slightly. Levi was slowly unbuttoning your shirt. He was never one to rush things, instead he liked to bask in the forplay and take his time to fully appreciate you.

“Why not?” He asked, pulling the shirt off your body, planting light kisses along your collarbones.

“Let’s just.. Move..”

“Bedroom?” He proposed, looking up at you. You nodded, and without missing a beat, Levi picked you up, your legs still wrapped around his body, and carried you off to your bedroom.

…

The next morning, you woke up to see Levi beside you, still fast asleep. You smiled to yourself slightly. Seeing Levi calm and peaceful like this was always so pleasant. You were tempted to reach out and stroke his cheek, but knowing how light of a sleeper he was, you figured it was best not to bother him.

You slipped out of bed as quietly as you could, and went out to put the kettle on for the both of you. 

You were pouring the water into the mugs when you felt a pair of hands wrap around your waist. 

“You’re quiet, I didn’t even hear you sneak up behind me like that,” You mumbled. Levi placed his head in the crook of your neck, hugging you from behind. “Did I wake you?” You asked him.

“No, you didn’t. But even if you did, I wouldn’t have minded.” He said, his voice still husky from having just woken up.

“I wish every morning could be like this,” Levi mumbled, still holding you from behind as you stirred some sugar into one of the teas. 

“If only that could be my Christmas present this year, getting to spend all my mornings in your arms like this as I make tea for the two of us,” You chuckled. You turned your head slightly, and Levi planted a light kiss on your cheek.

“I’m not super hungry, but do you want me to make you breakfast” You asked him.

“No, it’s okay, I’m not that hungry either.”

…  
After lounging around for a few hours, you decided it was time to open gifts. You both sat on the couch, sitting across from each other as you opened presents. You had a few odds n ends from your parents, some dishware and cutlery, some basic household necessities but nothing too serious. Hange and Erwin had given you both a few odds and ends, some books, gift cards for fancy restaurants, and Hange threw in a bottle of bleach as a joke for Levi considering his cleaning problem. 

It finally rolled around for you and Levi to give each other gifts.

You gave Levi yours first, and he looked rather excited to unwrap it. When he realized what it was, he looked up at you with a huge smile, and leaned forward to give you a little kiss on the cheek. 

“It’s a lovely watch y/n, thank you. I’ll wear it every day.” He said, pulling the watch out of the box and putting it on his wrist. It was silver with a dark leather strap, it suited him really well you thought. 

“I actually bought it on our trip to Switzerland a few months ago. I skipped one of your performances to go back to the Rolex store and buy it,” you explained.

“You skipped one of my performances?” He said, pretending to be hurt, but ultimately broke out smilling, giggling a bit at his own joke. “Alright, time for my gift.”

He handed you a small box, one you could only presume would be jewelry. 

“Proposing for a second time as we?” He smiled, waiting for you to open the box. 

Inside the jewelry box was a beautiful heart shaped necklace, but the pendant was a bit bigger; you could only assume it was a locket.

“You should open it. The locket.” Levi suggested. You couldn’t tell if it was excitement or nervousness, but he seemed a bit antsy to watch you open the locket.

The inside of the locket had two photos, and you recognized each of the days. The slot on the right had a photo of you and Levi together, the day you went to Paris together for a work. It was your first trip together, and you ended up having your picture taken together by one of the photographers who was hired for the event. The photo on the left was a photo of Levi and Erwin as kids back in university, goofing off. It was one of your favourite photos of them.

“Hange helped pick out the photos, I figured you’d want photos of me in it but wasn’t too sure what to pick. Do you like it?” Levi asked, sounding a bit nervous.

“It’s beautiful Levi. Thank you,” You said, reaching out to stroke his cheek. He tilted his hand slightly to plant a kiss on the inside of your hand.

“Merry Christmas y/n”

“Merry Christmas Levi,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, Happy Birthday Levi! Who cares that it's Christmas when it's Levi's birthday today.
> 
> Also I'll post the next chapter very soon I promise! Happy Holidays everyone :)


	9. It's Always You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, I hope you all had a nice but safe holiday! Sorry about the wait and the inconsistent posting schedule, you're all champs for butting up with my bullshit :) as promised in the last regular chapter, I was gonna make up for the wicked two month hiatus as well as the boring chapter. 
> 
> This chapter is a bit longer than usual, and it also starts off with Levi's POV instead of the reader, just to get a better sense of where his brain is at in all of this. Plus I just really enjoy writing Hange and Erwin into the story :)

_Link to song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXSFTe7tbqY_

“You’re awfully late, Levi” Erwin said upon hearing Levi finally come back into the studio they were renting. Erwin didn’t even raise his head, he just continued to look over his endless pile of paperwork while talking to Levi.

“I was busy.” Levi stated, shrugging him off. He hung up his coat, began warming up on the piano with a few arpeggios and scales. “Is Hange ready?” Levi asked.

“We were just waiting on you Levi,” Erwin said, slightly annoyed with him. “What was so important you took an extra half hour?”

“It’s a great time of year to visit tourist attractions you know.” Rolled his eyes, very much not wanting to engage in this conversation with Erwin.

Hange flung the doors of the studio open, energetic as usual.

“Aah, Levi, you’re back now! How was your date?” They asked. 

Despite the fact that Levi wasn’t drinking or eating anything, he still managed to choke a bit at Hange’s choice of words. 

“It was fine. I think she’ll agree to accompany me next week.” Was all Levi could say.

“So it was a date.” Erwin said, noting that Levi had never disagreed with Hange’s statement.

“It was coffee between someone who I’m interested in, and who I hope is interested in me as well. If you want to call it a date, then fine, suit yourself.”

“Oooh, we’ve pissed him off Erwin. Go team!” Hange stuck their hand out for a high five, and Erwin lightly tapped their hand with an incredibly unenthusiastic high five back.

“Shall we get started now?” Erwin proposed.

“Please.” Levi said, though he clearly wanted to start just to change the topic of conversation as opposed to actually run through another rehearsal.

...

You’d hardly been able to focus on your work all day after the lunch you’d had with Levi. You pride yourself on being one to be work oriented, someone who was dedicated to their job and fully immersed themselves in it. Taking time off work was a foreign thing to you, it was something you never really considered. But everyone does it, so why did you feel so guilty about it? 

_You should do it. You work so hard, you can afford to take a few days off._

_But I don't need to. Work isn’t stressful, and it’s not like I hate my job? It’s selfish to try and put my responsibilities onto others so I can fuck off to another country and have fun._

_Literally every other staff member here has paid vacation days but you. Not because you don’t have them, you just chose not to use them._

_But who would even take over for me? It’s not like there’s two people that own the store, I have way too many responsibilities to just pawn off onto someone inexperienced._

You’d been arguing with yourself like this practically all day, it was useless. Any work you needed to get done today was just going to have to wait until tomorrow. 

You decided it was probably best to have a mediator to the argument you’d been having all day, and decided to text Hitch to see if she could meet up after your work briefly (Which thank god, she could. It was times like this you needed someone boldly opinionated like Hitch to give advice.)

…

You popped down after work, to see her already sitting at a table with a drink waiting for you.

“I just got you your usual, is that alright?” She asked, a tinge of annoyance to her voice.

“It’s great, thanks Hitch. Was your day off okay?” You asked, hoping her annoyance was with a customer and not with you bugging her for advice.

“It was fine, just my roommate acting up recently,” She said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not a huge deal though, I’ll get it sorted. Annie’s just so hard to read sometimes, and SUPER hard to try and get along with when she’s in a mood.. Anyways, what’s up?” The second she redirected her attention to you, her whole attitude changed, and you sighed with relief seeing she was eager to hear about your problems.

“Kay, let me catch you up to speed on everything…”

…

After a lengthy explanation to the events of the past few weeks, from him asking you to attend his concert, to running into him at the bar, to him bringing along for work dinner, to him coming to your apartment for tea and now this, Hitch took a moment to process everything as well as your dilemma as to if you should go to France with him for a few days.

“You know, it’s a good thing you’re hot y/n” Hitch said to you. She looked as if she was about to smack you across the head; she was so annoyed.

“It was a simple question!” You said in your defense.

“‘Do you think it’s okay to take a bit of time off’” she said, mimicking your earlier question. “Who the _fuck_ asks that y/n? Any sane person would try and get their hands on as much time off as possible yet you? No. No time off, ever. None.”

“You’re being a bit dramatic Hitch.”

“Is self care a term you’re even familiar with?” she said with a sigh, sinking back down into her chair. 

“Look dude, it’s literally just a day trip to France, and you stay the night. It’s like a five hour drive? An hour if you fly? I doubt two singular days off work would kill you.” She explained. And you had to admit, her logic did make sense, it wasn’t that hard to go from Paris to Frankfurt.

“I just, I don’t know. It seems like everything is by fast. Like it’s been just over two weeks since I first met Levi, and here I am contemplating going to France with him.”

“Who said you had to go with him?” Hitch said, shrugging a bit. “You got an invite too, right? You have just as much right to be there as he does. If you’re so bent out of shape about it, let me go as the guy’s plus one and you take your own ticket there.”

“You’re funny,” you said with the most monotone voice you could pull off. Hitch laughed as how displeased you looked at the thought of her tagging along. 

“But yeah, you bring up a good point. And anyways, it is just for two days.”

“Literally just two days off work,”

“And I can even argue it’s for work-”

“God why does _everything_ have to be about work with you. Can’t you just go and forget about work?”

“That’s asking a biiiit to much of me Hitch,”

“Fair, Fair.” Hitch said, raising her hands in defense. “If thinking about it as a work trip makes you wanna do it more, then think of it as a work trip. Either way, I better not see you here next friday and saturday, that’s all.” 

“Yeah, it’s literally just a work trip,” you said, more to yourself than to Hitch, trying to convince yourself that you only wanted to go for work related purposes. To tour other galleries and get inspiration for your own. Nothing else besides that. 

“So you’re gonna go?”

“I think so,”

“Do I need to check in with you tomorrow to make sure you’ve changed the work schedules for next week?”

“I’m not a little kid, Hitch,” you said, laughing a bit at her lack of faith in you. You made a mental note to arrange who’d look after the gallery for next week, and to sort out the schedules.

…

You stopped by the grocery store to grab a few odds and ends before heading home. 

_The bottle of wine isn’t THAT much bigger compared to what I normally purchase._

You kicked your shoes off in the doorway, unpacked some groceries and started to cook a bit of dinner for yourself. You weren’t usually one to cook, but after the chaotic day you’d had today you figured you could use a well cooked meal. You played come music throughout your house as well, to accompany you as you cooked.

It dawned on you that you should probably tell Levi that you’d go with him on the premise of it being a work trip, but when you pulled out your phone to text him, you realized in the few weeks you’d known him, you’d never actually gotten his number. It was constantly just him showing up at your work unannounced, or coincidentally running into each other after work. But you had Erwin’s number, so at least that was a start.

> y/n: Hi Erwin! I was wondering if you could do me a favour and give me Levi’s cell number. I have a few things I need to talk to him about. Thanks! 

You figured it’d be a while until Erwin responded back, so you set your phone aside and continued cooking. Instead of putting the radio on, you walked over to the record player you had and flipped through the vinyls until you found one to listen to. You settled for a Miles Davis album before going back to finish up the bolognese sauce you were working on for dinner.

You were adding some herbs to the pasta sauce when you heard your phone go off, and after grabbing it fairly fast to check it, you teased yourself a bit for how eager you were for Erwin to get back to you.

> Erwin: Hi y/n, of course I can lend you his cell number. I’m sure there are some things you two need to discuss about now anyways. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Erwin sent Levi’s phone number in a separate message to you, and wished you a goodnight once again.

 _Does Levi gossip about me to… Erwin?_ You thought to yourself, laughing a bit at the thought.

You weren’t in any rush to call Levi (at least, that’s what you told yourself) so you continued to finish up dinner and have a nice, well cooked meal by yourself as you browsed netflix looking for a film to put on while eating dinner.

You settled for Notting Hill, just something to put on for some background noise more or less.

You were halfway through your meal when you heard your phone ringing from the kitchen, where you left it.

_Odd, I’m not expecting a call or anything, did I forget something at work?_ You thought to yourself as you walked over to grab your phone.

It was a private number, so you couldn’t even tell where the call was coming from. 

“Hello?” You said, answering the phone.

“Why would you go to the trouble of getting my number just to not call me?” A familiar voice asked. You sighed, as you should’ve been more or less expecting this.

“Were you so upset that I didn’t call you right away that you proceeded to get my number from Erwin?” You said, teasing him a bit. The silence on the other end of the phone was entertaining on it’s own, you were sure you’d made Levi feel a bit embarrassed.  
“I need to start organizing things sooner rather than later so I wanted to hear your answer, don’t take this personally or anything.” Levi said, clearly trying to backtrack.

“Oh no, why would I ever take you inviting me to accompany you on a trip to France personally.” you said in the most sarcastic tone of voice you could possibly muster.

“Get on with it.” Levi said, clearly not too amused at your antics.

“Yes, I’m going. I need to arrange some scheduling tomorrow but I’ll be going with you.” You said, giving up on the ‘teasing Levi’ act. 

Levi was silent on the other end of the phone for a while, presumably trying to process that you’d agreed to go with him.

“Alright. Goodbye-”

“Levi!” You cut him off instinctively, not wanting to end the call yet. “Will I… See you again, before we leave?” You asked, your voice a bit quiet from how embarrassed you felt. 

“Hmm..” He said, thinking the question over to himself. While it was probably only a second that he thought it over, it seemed like you were waiting an awfully long time.

“I actually am rather busy with practice rehearsals and finalizing paperwork this week, I’m not sure I’ll have the time…” His voice trailed off slightly. 

“Oh, it’s fine, I- Sorry to bring it up,” You stammered, trying to hide your embarrassment.

_Why the hell do I even feel so embarrassed asking to see him? I’m not a fucking child._ You thought to yourself, trying to get over how stupid you felt.

“What’re you doing right now?” Levi suddenly asked, catching you off guard. You glanced around pitifully at your empty apartment, single bowl of food, the romance movie playing quietly in the background, and sighed.

“Nothing. Literally nothing.”

“Are you at home? Or at work still?” he asked impatiently.

“I’m home right now-”

“I’ll be over then. We’ll go somewhere.”

And with that he hung up the phone, not even giving you the chance to refute.

You probably stood in place, a look of confusion smeared across your face, for a good few minutes trying to process the audacity that Levi Ackerman had sometimes. Then it dawned on you it might be ideal to toss something on besides the sweatpants and hoodie you’d changed into after coming home from work. You threw on a pair of mom jeans and an oversized knit sweater that’d layer nicely under your coat in the event Levi decided to go somewhere. You weren’t really sure what he meant by ‘We’ll go somewhere’, and you figured it was best to be over prepared than underprepared.

A few minutes passed as you mindlessly lounged around your house, waiting for Levi. 

The doorbell rang.

You got up, and quickly walked over to greet Levi at the door. His eyes quickly darted from your feet back up to your face, looking you over.

“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you in casual clothes.” Levi noted.

He was right. Pretty much every time he’d seen you, it’d been after work.

“You look nice,” He mentioned, with a straight face. He almost said it like it was a matter of fact.

“I could say the same thing about you,” you said, raising an eyebrow slightly as his outfit. And he really did look nice. A Navy turtleneck sweater underneath a long, black coat and black pants to match. Considering navy and black is a strange colour combination, Levi pulled it off exceptionally well.

“So, Levi. What’s the plan?” You asked him.

“I actually hadn’t gotten that far,” He said, laughing a bit at his own aloofness. “Any suggestions? You know the city better than I do.”

You gave him a rather tender smile, and chuckled a bit under your breath. “I have a few places in mind, yeah. Let me grab my coat and I’ll be out.”

You threw on a jacket, and grabbed a scarf that was hanging up as well. You started to wrap the scarf around your neck, when you felt Levi walk up behind you and take the scarf from your hands. He gently wrapped it around your neck, a slight smile across his face.

“Is it somewhere we need to drive?” He asked you.  
“No, it’s a rather short walk from here.”

…

A few blocks from your apartment building, there was a spot you’d become quite fond of over the years. It was along the main river, and this time of night it was exceptionally pretty as all the lights from the apartment buildings in the back contrasted with the warm, homeu lights of the small townhouses on the opposite side of the river. The lights from the apartment complexes reflected along the river too, making the river have this beautiful amber glow to it.

You walked alongside Levi for a while, following the river. While you anticipated it to be a bit cold, you hadn’t realized how cold it was going to be. You were rubbing your hands together slightly, trying to keep them warm.

“Cold?” Levi said, glancing down at your hands.

“Just a bit.”

Levi extended his hand outwards, and you gave his a bit of a puzzled look. He scoffed, rolling his eyes at you before just grabbing one of your hands, intertwining his fingers with yours and sticking both of your hands into his coat pocket.

“Better?” He asked. You responded with a simple ‘mhh’, and a soft grin on your face which was more than enough to tell Levi you were content. He smirked to himself a bit, and you two continued along with your walk.

“It seems this is all we seem to do. Go on walks through parks and enjoy each other's company.” You noted after a while.

“Mhh. Is it a bad thing do you think? That we aren’t out doing more interesting things?” He asked in response,a bit of a teasing tone to his voice.

“I never said it was a bad thing,” you said back, with a more teasing tone of voice than his.

Levi stopped suddenly, looking up at the sky. He pulled his hand out of his pocket (the free hand, of course,) and held it open as a few snowflakes gently fell into the palm of his hand.

“No wonder it’s so cold, if it’s supposed to snow tonight.” He added. “Are your hands still cold?” He asked, squeezing your hand slightly from inside his coat pocket.

“Mhm. Terribly cold. Not warm even in the slightest.” You teased, and he smirked at your eagerness to continue holding his hand. 

“In that case then-” He grabbed your other hand, and held it as well, now facing you. “I suppose I should keep the other hand warm too,” he said. 

You were standing with Levi, holding both of his hands looking up at him, snow gently falling onto his face. You swung your arms slightly and you stood there holding his hands.

“Why’re you staring at my face?” Levi asked bluntly.

“Because it’s pretty to look at,” You said back, not missing a beat. His face turned red a bit, but you could tell it definitely wasn’t from the cold.

“Come here, you have snow along your cheek,” He said, trying to change the subject. He pulled you closer to him, and swiped a few snowflakes off your cheek.

“It’s a snowflake Levi, it’s not a big deal.” You said, rolling your eyes at him.What started off as a thumb gently brushing the apple of your cheek turned into him cupping the side of your face with your hand. Perhaps he just was looking for an excuse to pull you closer to him. His hand was incredibly warm, and he slightly stoked your cheek with one of his fingers as he held your face.

“You’re quite pretty to look at yourself. Who needs a museum when I have you here in front of me?” He said to you. You watched as he glanced back and forth between your eyes and your lips.

“That was a bit corny there Levi,” You teased, rolling your eyes slightly. You turned to walk away a bit, not wanting to stand in the middle of the park awkwardly, but Levi seemed to have other ideas. As you turned to walk away, Levi pulled you back around with the hand he was still holding, pulling you in to kiss him. He didn’t hesitate in the slightest, he just spun you around and planted his lips onto yours.

You didn’t hesitate either, realizing you’d been waiting for this kiss for quite some time now. You wrapped your arms around Levi’s neck instinctively, kissing him back. The cold stung slightly as it filled your lungs between kisses, but you didn’t mind. The kisses slowed to soft, slow kisses and Levi pulled back after a moment, and you noticed how heavy his breathing had gotten as you watched the smoke come out of his mouth every time he exhaled from how cold it was. You were expecting him to say something, but he just looked at you with a smile across his face - in fact one of the biggest smiles you’d seen on his face yet.

“It’s cold, and the snow is picking up a lot, we should probably head back.” He suggested. His voice was a bit quieter than usual, it was rather cute. You nodded and held out your hand for him to grab once again. You held hands inside his coat pocket for the rest of the walk.  
...

Levi walked you to the door, and you unlocked your apartment door, pausing momentarily before turning the key. You glanced up at Levi, who was already eagerly looking at you.

“Would you like to come in for a bit?”

“I would love to.”

_**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXSFTe7tbqY** _

You unlocked the door, and Levi followed you inside. You realized that you’d never shut off the music you were playing, as you could hear Chet Baker faintly playing in the distance. You hung up your coat and Levi hung his up alongside yours.

You weren’t entirely sure how to act around him now, and you were mentally beating yourself up for how flustered you’d gotten since kissing him in the park.

“Can I get you anything.. Or..” You said, stumbling over your words trying to make conversation. You walked into the kitchen, and Levi followed suit, leaning up along the wall, folding his arms. He smirked at you a bit, looking rather pleased with himself.

“What happened to that sarcastic, cocky attitude of yours? Did you forget it at the park?” He teased.

“Oh shut up you asshole,” You said, rolling your eyes and chuckling slightly.

“A tea would be lovely,” laughing along with you. “The same one as last time, if you have it. You make a nice cup of tea as well.” 

You pulled the tea bags and bone china cups out of your cupboard, and turned the kettle on. You leaned up against the counter opposite Levi and faced him, and you waited for the kettle to boil.

“You’re awfully picky about how you like your tea,” you jested.

“I guess, yeah. Some people it’s wine, for some it’s coffee. I guess I’m just picky about how I like my tea,” he said in agreement.

While you started to steep the tea, Levi walked over to windows in your apartment and looked down along the street. 

“Hell of a view,” he muttered. You walked over, two mugs in hand, and passed him one. He gave you at warm smile, and sipped it slightly before turning back to the window.

“I grew up in a rougher part of Paris, and never really got to see views like this, so being this high up in apartment complexes always feels so forieign to me.” Levi explained quietly. You could almost sense a slight vulnerability in his voice, his tone of voice wavered slightly as he spoke as if he was nervous to tell you anything about himself. “A good sort of foreign,” he added on, wanting to clarify his first statement, “But I’m still not used to how far you can see from this high up.”

“You grew up in Paris though, right? Surely you’ve been up the Eiffel tower?” You commented, a puzzled look painted across your face.

Levi gave you an incredibly sympathetic smile, and his eyes had an almost bittersweet look to them.

“Tickets cost money, so I never got to go. I had more important things to do as a kid anyways besides sightseeing in my own city.” He explained.

“Like what?”

“Making money, really. Surviving? When I say that I grew up in a dodgy area of Paris I truly mean dodgy.”

Considering the rate in which this story was going, you figured it was best to not ask any more questions and just let Levi tell you what he was comfortable with. The last thing you’d want to do is bring up another sore spot.

“Have you been to Paris?” Levi asked, changing the subject slightly.

“No, actually. I didn’t travel a lot as a kid, maybe just to Switzerland to go skiing during the winters, but that was it.”

Levi smiled at you again, and reached his hand out to stroked your hair gently.

“Well I look forward to being your tour guide while we’re there.” Levi leaned in, and planted a small kiss on your cheek.

“Thank you for the tea, but I should probably head out now.” He said. You took the cup of tea from him and set it down on the kitchen counter. You walked him to the door, and watched as he put his coat on.

“Good luck with your rehearsals this week,” you started as he stood in the doorway, about to leave. “Do I get to hear any of them before the weekend?”  
“Nope. It’ll be a surprise for when we’re there,” he said with a joking tone of voice. You sighed, not fully wanting to say goodbye to him yet.

“I’ll see you in a week, Levi.” you said. He cupped your face with his hand, his thumb stroking your cheek slightly. His hand was so big you were able to plant a small peck on the inside of it as he held your cheek.

“I’ll see you in a week, y/n.” He leaned in, and your lips met, and he kissed you gently, it was just a soft, simple goodbye kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also! Thank you for all the kind comments recently! I unfortunately had a bit of a glitch and had to delete one of the chapters and re-upload it so I lost a few of the comments on that chapter :( but they make my day! I can't thank you all enough who actually engage w my work and leave comments, it's very motivating to write when I know people are looking forward to another chapter.
> 
> Also? TOTALLY off topic but I hope everyone is enjoying the new season of AOT! I'm so brutally in love with Reiner, I almost cried during his backstory (I also have read the manga so I'm fully caught up with what happens). Zeke also looks so good in the recent apps, Mappa did him so well, especially in the scenes where he smokes??? Those jaeger genes istg, Eren and Zeke are both fine as helllll (which is weird considering how ugly grisha is lmao)
> 
> Anyways! Hope everyone has a lovely rest fo their day, thank you for reading this story, it's v appreciated <3
> 
> Also feel free to tell me if there's ever a spelling mistake in my chapters lmao I write these super late at night and sometimes don't catch them all when I proof read.


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